While there is no privacy law in India yet, the Government is shortly launching an Internet monitoring system called 'Netra' which will be capable to detect suspicious words like 'attack', 'bomb', 'blast' or 'kill' in real time on social media, emails, instant messaging services, blogs and others, reports The Economic Times. Citing a note from the telecom department, the report mentions that security agencies will be able to monitor voice traffic on services like Skype, Google Talk and others through this system and this deployment will facilitate setting up of a national Internet scanning & coordination centre, similar to ones present in the United States, United Kingdom, China and others. Netra has been developed by Centre for Artificial Intelligence & Robotics (CAIR), a lab under Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) whose research focuses on various defense related areas in Information and Communication Technology like artificial intelligence, robotics, intelligent systems, communication & information security and others. The lab is also reportedly working with Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) to develop a formal strategy to track Internet usage. A PTI report also cites a home ministry note on Netra which states that the Intelligence Bureau and Cabinet Secretariat have conducted tests on the system and the ministry is currently providing final touches to the system, following which it will be provided to security agencies. Netra seems to be another key component in the Indian government's broader Internet surveillance plans over the past few years. However, we are curious on how the system is able to…
