India wants access to Google, Skype, Twitter data

The government on Wednesday made it clear that social networking sites must comply with the security agencies' requirement for a real-time monitoring of their user data to ensure that national security is not compromised.

Amid a raging controversy over BlackBerry posing security concerns, security agencies have now asked the Union telecom ministry to provide real-time monitoring of various social networking sites like Google, Skype and Twitter, among others.

"There are a whole list of companies that have been asked to give (access), provide monitoring solution, because law enforcement agencies, the home ministry and intelligence agencies want that information for national security," Ministry of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot told reporters on the sidelines of an AMD-Assocham event in New Delhi.

The government had earlier asked Canadian firm Research in Motion, which provides BlackBerry services, to handover an interception solution for its BlackBerry Internet Services (BIS), BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and BlackBerry Enterprise Servers (BES) over security concerns that terrorists may use these services, since the data is highly encrypted and security agencies can't monitor such services.

The government had also sent similar notices to companies like Google and Skype to allow interception of the data.

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"Papers were exchanged months ago... The discussions are on and we are looking at finding a solution soon, since it is a matter of national security," he said.

Skype, which was earlier this year bought by Microsoft Corporation (MSFT), provides telephony services over the Internet, while Google offers a host of services like search and e-mail.

Speaking at an international conference on 'Ethics, Governance and Technology', organised jointly by IT giant AMD and industry chamber Assocham, AMD (India) managing director Ravi Swaminathan said, "We believe that forums like these create a platform for the industry to come together and address relevant societal issues."

"Technology has given rise to the awareness and aspirations of many and at the same time is playing the role of an enabler for governance and regulating ethical issues," he added.

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Computing has moved beyond increasing clock speeds to enhancing experiences and has become a catalyst for improving efficiencies, timeliness and responsiveness in service delivery. As a representative of the technology industry at this event, AMD reiterates its commitment to remain at the heart of simplifying technology, deploying innovation to make technology affordable and inclusive, he said.

BlackBerry has been maintaining that the company did not possess any key and once the data is transferred on its server, the same cannot be intercepted by the company even.

The government is understood to have given the company another deadline till August 15 to provide the interception keys to the security agencies to avoid banning of its services in the country.