MHA orders 10 agencies to snoop on any computer

December 22: Careful… eyes are now on your computer data. Investigating agencies will have sweeping powers to intercept and monitor data on computers after a new home ministry order put out on Thursday. In this regard, the Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a notification giving sweeping powers to 10 government agencies to snoop on any computer in the country.

In the order dated Thursday, December 20, the ministry has enabled Intelligence Bureau, Narcotics Control Bureau, Enforcement Directorate, Central Board of Direct Taxes, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Central Bureau of Investigation, National Investigation Agency, Cabinet Secretariat, Directorate of Signal Intelligence, and Delhi Commissioner of Police to monitor, decrypt, and intercept “any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer.”

Rajiv Gauba, the Home Secretary signed the order which not just allows these agencies to track your digital life but also mandates full cooperation from the citizens to help the agencies access your data. According to the notification, the subscriber or service provider or any person in charge of the computer resource is bound to extend all facilities and technical assistance to the agencies. Failing this, they can face seven years in jail and a fine.

After outrage on social media and elsewhere on Friday, the government moved to clarify that the order is not new and it merely reiterates the powers that were already available to these agencies since 2009. Opposition parties led by the Congress denounced the government’s move as “unconstitutional, undemocratic and an assault on fundamental rights”. “From Modi Sarkar to stalker sarkar, clearly the string of losses has left the BJP government desperate for information,” the Congress tweeted.