National Encryption Policy may not be implemented

New Delhi, Sept 22: The draconian draft of the National Encryption Policy may be further amended to make it more viable or entirely withdrawn. The Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) has come under a lot of flak due to this draft policy and experts have slammed it terming it as draconian.

Although there was a clarification issued that social media sites and netbanking would not come under the purview of the policy, there was not much respite since it still mandated that information be stored for 90 days in a text format.

This has been termed to be running contrary to the Right to Privacy as enshrined in the Indian Constitution.

The DeiTY is expected to either withdraw the policy or amend it further. Officials would work further on the policy and look for ways to amend it so that the provisions do not take a draconian form.

However, it is most likely that the department may withdraw the policy entirely and draft a new one which is more friendly and aims at achieving its purpose.

A few hours after the policy came out the government was forced to clarify that social media sites would be exempted. This brings about another question and that is the effectiveness of the policy. Users are more likely to go to social media sites and exchange information as it would remain out of the purview of this policy.

The other drawback of the policy was that several companies would need to enter into an agreement with the government so that the information can be stored both in encrypted and un-encrypted form.

This would not be easy as several companies are abroad and may not agree to enter into such an agreement, leading cyber law expert Pavan Duggal pointed out.

OneIndia News