A very informative article, hammering on the need for legislating on the subject of new business opportunities ( as in the case of telephone tapping), on one hand and the interest of the state (long term interest of the people) on the other; after a thorough debate on all aspects of the subject; by a group of enlightened persons like Mr. Bhattacharya.
I remember the famous statement made on the editors of leading newspapers during the emergency. Someone said that "they crawled when they were only required to bend." It is in this context that I compliment rediff.com for not agreeing to the Inspector's request and insisting on the necessary advice from the Home Secretary. The true test of an organization comes when it is faced with an opposition which is mightier than the organization. The NDA government tried to arm-twist Tehalka.com to submission but Tarun Tejpal refused to bend. Today the NDA government is gone but the the ghost of Tehalka still haunts its ministers. Well Done Rediff. Keep Walking Straight with your head held high always.
Best way to ensure highest security would be to have servers placed outside India, which are non governed by Indian government and use 128bit encrypted website to login to it. Nobody can easily tap emails and nobody can really control it.
If its really big concern for government, they will have to convince server management company and government of that country to open particular email box.
Thank you for this very informative piece of article about the processes our law enforcers follow.
It is quite apparent that most of them do not know how to even ask for or present information. In recent Bombay local train case, the police not only shared the email ids, but, shockingly, also the access passwords! That would mean, anybody virtually could try and change the password, delete all mails from these accounts!! Or, send any mail using such accounts.
The IT security policy announced by the cabinet secretary recently is also not without the loopholes. A reasonably tech savvy person can still breach the government's IT security.
I wish they will read email and interact, so that one could consider discussing with them to help out.
Superb article! The first think which needs to be revamped are our ageold prehistoric LAWS. It is really laughable that we are still depending on the laws which the British had defined. Even the judiciary looks like it is tightly bound with whatever the government says-even if it is wrong. What will happen to this country?
Rediff should be commended for refusing to kowtow the governemnt line. However, things look very pessimistic for rediff. Here are my reasons why: 1. If people realize that the GOI can easily peep into their mail accounts, they would prefer to create mail accounts outside India. (And I would like to see our local police trying to extract passwords from Yahoo by brandishing archaic Telegraph laws left over by the British in India. Of course, the Government of India can route the complaint through China.)The upside is that the safest mail account will be a mail server in Pakistan! Being a long term fan of rediff, barring the forcible viewing of ads, I am a little distressed at this prospect.
2. The Tehelka Effect - We have seen how effectively an Indian Government can destroy a company. Remember Tehelka? I dont think it will be too difficult for the bright guys who run this joint to find some unexplained funds and slap money laundering charges. Or some violation or the other. Rediff can protest, but not overtly. They will have to give in. And this wont do their reputation any good.
3. The Visible, Goverment hand - Finally, some aging dinosaur will come up with a new rule. Al
