Internet monitoring through the neutralized system is being encouraged by the Government and this will help better internet trafficking and mobile facilities.
The government is out to consider monitoring internet traffic via a centralized system which is operational all over the country. This was disclosed by Parliament. The focus is on internet monitoring through a centralized system.
The government has rather set up a Centralized Monitoring System (CMS) for a lawful interception as well as monitoring of mobile phones, landlines along with internet traffic via the mobile network.
As of now, monitoring of internet traffic via internet service providers is being done through Internet Monitoring System which is also under consideration for integration with CMS. Obviously, much emphasis will be given toward internet monitoring through a centralized system.
The hub of CMS happens to be located in Delhi and 21 regional monitoring centers are operational across all the 22 telecom circles in the country.
The CMS does facilitate automated processing of lawful interception order from law enforcement agencies to telecom operators. It does allow electronic provisioning of the targets without manual intervention of telecom operators.
There were about 3.8 billion internet users around the world in 2018. It is, of course, equivalent to 51 percent of the global population, up from 49 percent in 2017.
India happens to be the second largest internet market in the world. This trend was rather observed in the 2019 Mary Meeker Internet Trends Report. As a measure in order to look over the vast telecom network and internet traffic in the country, the government is rather considering monitoring it all through a Centralized Monitoring System (CMS). The concept of internet monitoring through a centralized system is indeed painful.
The digital monitoring system, which is already operating in Delhi and Mumbai, is to be operational across the country thus integrating various network service providers into the given fabric. At present, there are 21 regional monitoring centers that operate across all the telecom circles in India.
The order does call for an interception as well as monitoring of mobile phones, landlines and the internet network sprawling across the country. Integrating the monitoring system will rather eliminate the role of telecom operators and thus enable electronic provisioning of anything and also everything that is related to communication lines.
The development of the system will be undertaken in phases. CMS will also play the government agency between the target lines as well as digital law enforcement. In cases of national security issues as well as allied matters, the federal structure of agency will rather come in handy to secure the flow of communication in real-time.
The concept of a centrally storing communication data was first envisaged with regard to the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008. With the CMS, income tax officials will indeed be focusing on having centralized access to the country’s telecom. This is how the process is envisaged like – all data intercepted by the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) will, in fact, be a default transmission to the CMS. Only the central officials will have the required credentials to view the system and hence, they can somehow bypass service providers in gaining such access.
Will this be a breach of privacy? Media has in fact for the last few years, indeed discussed the cons of the system claiming it as an infringement upon citizen’s right to privacy as well as other human rights. However, the authorities do indeed maintain that the CMS will be in a better position to protect the privacy of individuals. Of course, in a country where corruption levels are skyrocketing one cannot guarantee the claims with an unregulated surveillance scheme. Also, there has been no public consultation much prior to its implementation, not even a parliamentary discourse.
