Under the draft Indian Telecommunication Bill, 202 encryption capabilities will weaken when it comes to OTT communication, as well as increased privacy erosions.
The Department of Communications (DoT) has recently released the draft of ITB for people to comment on. The IT Bill aims to put all three current laws that deal with telecom matters into one new law. This would create a better, more comprehensive way for the government to regulate and monitor this industry.
There has been a lot of questioning, especially from the ITB, on over-the-top communication services such as WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Facetime, Zoom and Facebook etc. These are all communication services that are used to send messages and make voice and video calls over the internet. For these to operate properly and for them to provide users with the promised security of end-to-end encryption, ITB wants them to also take up a licence from the government. The problem is that this would transfer any cost increases onto customers if it becomes viable.
However, these services might also have to weaken their system in order to comply with law enforcement’s orders. At present, platforms providing end-to-end encryption services do not store data on them. In order to comply with the government’s provisions, they would need to start storing such data, which would defeat the purpose of the said facility they aim to provide. Weak encryption would make messages unattended and vulnerable to cyber attacks. TRAI recommended in its 2020 recommendations to DoT that the security architecture of end-to-end encrypted services should not be tinkered with as this will compromise the privacy and safety of citizens.
