Modi Govt may force WhatsApp to break Encryption - Proposal of new IT Law
A major English daily on Monday reported that the Modi government have proposed to bring changes in IT rules and is hoping to amend the Section 79 of the IT Act, the one that deals with liabilities of intermediaries places of social media platforms like WhatsApp, so that it can force them to monitor "unlawful" content while following stricter due-diligence practices. Just before two days Ministry Home Affairs issued the controversial memo that authorized 10 agencies in the country to look into any computer or computing resources such as phones, there is a report that the NDA government is now working on modifying several IT Act rules that may again raise fear of mass surveillance. In other words, what the government is seeking is a way to get past the end-to-end encryption that is used in WhatsApp as well as in services like iPhone FaceTime or the Android phone backup. If enforced, the new proposed rules may require WhatsApp and others to break the privacy protection ...