Relax! The Govt won’t spy on your Whatsapp or G-Chat messages

Breathe easy. You can continue to converse and delete your Whatsapp chats and save yourself from your parents, girlfriend and wife! Government’s move to keep a track of people’s conversation in Whatsapp, mail and social media didn’t go down well with the people, and it is backtracking. Yesterday an expert committee of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) had suggested through the draft of its new encryption policy that one shouldn't delete Whatsapp conversation till 90 days for security reasons. Soon after the draft policy became public, a controversy erupted forcing the government to go mild on the decision.

The committee has clarified that social media websites and applications will be exempted from the purview of the Encryption Policy, which is aimed at enhancing data security.

According to the draft posted by DeitY, there are certain categories of encryption products that will be exempted from the purview of the draft national encryption policy.

The mass-use encryption products, which are currently being used in web applications, social media sites, and social media applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter etc are being exempted from the purview of the draft National Encryption Policy, said a proposed addendum to the policy posted on the department's website.

Every messaging service including Whatsapp, Facebook, Gmail use some form of encryption. The amendment also ensured that internet banking and payment gateways will be exempted from the purview.

A draft policy has been introduced under Section 84 A of the Information Technology Act (2000). Once finalised, rules for encryption of electronic information and communication will be introduced under the policy. The draft document is open to public for comments until October 16.

The draft document says that the policy's mission is to "provide confidentiality of information in cyber space for individuals, protection of sensitive or proprietary information for individuals & businesses, ensuring continuing reliability and integrity of nationally critical information systems and networks."

Having triggered a nation-wide controversy and heated debate, the govt’s new decision is a concern for netizens as it aims at peeping into individual’s private life. Earlier, the govt’’s decision to ban pornographic content online had also been toned down after people expressed their angst.