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Central Government, Government Security, Policy

India targets Google and Skype on data security

By Robin Hicks | 2 September 2010

First BlackBerry. Now Google and Skype. The government of India not only wants BlackBerry to build data centres within its borders so that its intelligence agencies can more easily monitor communications. It wants Google and Skype to do the same.

Home Secretary G. K. Pillai said yesterday (Wednesday 1st September) that the government would be sending notices to the two firms, requesting that they set up servers in India.

Pillai’s ultimatum is partly motivated by concerns that the services could be used by militants.

However, Skype and Google both told FutureGov that they were yet to receive any word from the government.

A Google India spokesperson also refused to speculate on whether the company would go the way of its China operation, which ceased operations in the country in March.

In India, around 24 million people – many of them government employees - use its gmail service, from which users can now make phone calls. Orkut, Google’s social networking service which has not enjoyed much success outside of South Asia, now has 19.9 million users in India.

Skype, which also has a large user base in the country, was on the receiving end of a crackdown by the Indian government in 2006. Local businesses were advised not to use the internet telephony service, the government citing security risks and a loss of tax revenue.

The firm would not comment on the latest news.

“We have not received any notification from the [Indian] government and hence are unable to comment further at this stage,” Skype’s Asia Pacific PR Director Eunice Lim told FutureGov.

The news comes just two days after the expiry of a deadline for Research In Motion, the maker of BlackBerry, to give the Indian authorities access to its data traffic. The company has been given a further 60 days to comply.

But some firms are playing ball.

Nokia, which counts India as its second largest market after China, has bowed to the government’s demands to install a server in India to handle communications for its messaging service by November.

Other telco providers are likely to be targeted by the government in due course.

The Home Ministry said on Monday (30th August 2010): “Any communication through the telecom networks should be accessible to the law enforcement agencies and all telecom service providers including third parties have to comply with this.”

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