International human rights organisation, Human Rights Watch (HRW, New York) has called out the Indian Government to enact clear laws regarding surveillance and protection of privacy of its citizens and with this regard, the organisation has also asked the Indian government to hold a full and transparent public debate on the matter. In April 2013, the Indian government began rolling out the Central Monitoring System (CMS) enabling government agencies to monitor and analyse all telecommunications and internet communications including telephone calls, email, text messages, MMS, fax communications on landlines, CDMA, video calls, GSM and 3G networks in the country. HRW is concerned that the Indian government has not provided enough information on how the collected data will be used, how long the data will be retained, whose data will be collected, among others. This information is especially important because India lacks a privacy law protecting the rights of its citizens. Since the Central Monitoring System has not been passed by the parliament, the Human Rights Watch would like the Indian government to hold a public debate on the matter. Surveillance so far by India: In a recent report, the Centre for Internet & Society had pointed out that India has around 76 companies in India that manufacture surveillance technology that aids the Indian government agencies in monitoring public data. The Indian government has also been requesting for data from internet companies including Google, Microsoft and Twitter. It is worth noting that between July and December 2012, Google received 2,431 requests for disclosure of user data from…
