Govt taking steps to revise Encryption Policy

Government has started working on revising the encryption policy to ensure security of data and transactions done by citizens, Parliament was informed today.
"Government has initiated steps to revise the Encryption Policy recommendations with wide consultation with stakeholders," Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.
In September, government had issued draft of National Encryption Policy, which proposed to mandate storage of every message sent by people -- be it through WhatsApp, SMS, e-mail or any such service -- in plain text format for 90 days and it should be made available on demand to security agencies.

Legal actions that also included imprisonment were proposed in the draft policy, which was later withdrawn.
"Government noted public sentiments viz-a-viz the draft recommendations. Government clarified that the draft recommendations are not the final view of the government on the matter," Prasad said.
He said that government took note of the ambiguity in some portions of the draft that may have led to misgivings.
"Hence, the draft recommendations of the policy were withdrawn. The government fully respects the upholding of right to privacy of citizens and acknowledges the need for protection of private data against misuse. There is no intention by the government to implement an encryption policy breaching right to privacy of public," Prasad said.

The minister said encryption has been recognised by the government as means to securing data and transactions and the provision in the Information Technology Act 2000 enables the use of encryption for such purposes.