The Ministry of Home Affairs is putting in place a Standard Operating Procedure for interception of phone calls in a bid to avoid Niira Radia-type leaks of recordings and prevent unauthorised tapping.
Under this system, telecom operators will be required to put in place a two- tier structure.
Nodal officer
At the central level, operators will have to appoint a National Nodal Officer who will be the point man for the monitoring agencies.
The nodal officer will be overall responsible for password management, process monitoring across the company and implementing Government requirements with regard to interception.
Circle level officer
Operators are also required to appoint a nodal officer at the circle level who will handle interception requests made by various agencies. The circle level officer will execute the interception requests and destruction of records.
“It is pertinent to note that interception is a top secret process and it should be handled in the most sacred manner and no information pertaining to any interception be divulged, shared, disseminated or exchanged in any manner with anybody,” the draft of the Standard Operating Procedure states.
The SOP also puts the onus on operators to check unauthorised interception of messages.
The operators will also have to destroy recordings of intercepted messages within two months of discontinuation of interception.
Changes in IT Act
The MHA has also proposed to amend the IT Act to insert new rules which will give powers to investigating agencies to get access to any computer device and all the information stored in it.
The draft SOP also requires the nodal officer to give a no objection certificate to subscribers who want to change operator using Mobile Number Portability.
The nodal officer will have to ensure that the number to be ported is not being intercepted by agencies before allowing the user to port.