Now, Google, Skype asked to give access to Govt agencies

New Delhi : After mobile phone maker BlackBerry, the government will issue notices to search engine Google, internet phone call provider Skype, service provider Virtual Private Network (VPN) and a few other entities to make available their services to law enforcement agencies.

The notices to these entities will be issued beginning on Tuesday and all of them will be asked to comply with the directive or else they will have to close down their networks in India, a senior official said on Monday.
"There will be no discrimination. All networks operating in India will have to give access to their services to law enforcement agencies," the official said. The development comes after the government had given a similar notice to Research in Motion, the makers of BlackBerry mobile phones, to allow interception of all types communications using the device.

The Union Home Ministry has discussed the security concerns related to voice and messaging services on the Internet offered by Google and Skype in India, both of which have considerable presence in the country.

The data travelling through Google, Skype, VPN and a few other networks is not accessible by security agencies in the country. Google is a popular search engine which also offers email, online chatting and owns social networking website Orkut.

Luxembourg-based Skype provides telephony services over the Internet on personal computers and mobile phones uses proprietary encryption and decryption. VPN is a network that uses a public telecommunication infrastructure, such as the Internet, to provide remote offices or individual users with secure access to their organization's network.
Source: The Indian Express