Ever since India opened up its economy in the early 1990s, it has seen two decades of consistent expansion, becoming one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
Located in one of the planet’s most populous regions, holding more than a sixth of the world’s population, it is the instability of the region that poses the greatest threat to India’s growth engine. While America has warded off attacks on its soil after 9/11, India has repeatedly been subject to terror attacks.
It is no surprise then that debate on civil liberties has had a meek presence in the shadow of this violence. And now with technological capability in hand, the Indian government is going forward with a comprehensive data mining infrastructure to bolster its security apparatus.
NATGRID
The National Intelligence Grid is by far the most ambitious data mining project conceived by India. It involves linking large data banks to make information more readily available to the nation’s intelligence agencies. The project is expected to be rolled out over the next three years. The government has promised the first phase will be up and running by early 2013. The first step will see better interlinking of data from banks, phone companies and travel records.
Rolling out the infrastructure in its entirety may require amendments to data protection and access laws already on the books. It has offered to put in place oversight mechanisms to address the concerns of privacy that would arise from the implementation of the system. So far the major discussion in the mainstream media has revolved around the government’s delay in ushering in NATGRID rather than questioning possible abuses of the system.
Central Monitoring System
In the post Mumbai-attacks environment, the Indian government announced its intention to set up a Centralized Monitoring System for communications over cell phones, fixed-line phones and the internet. The system exploits exemptions within the laws that allow for monitoring under certain conditions such as countering terrorism. The aim is to put in place central and regional databases that can be cross-referenced.
The system will allow for analysis of call details, logs and even location-based details.
Tracking encrypted communication
The government has been alarmed by the technology used by terrorists in carrying out attacks within India. The government has been trying to get major companies to let its security agencies gain access to communications data.
India has been pressing hard to get Canada-based company Research in Motion to provide the encryption key to intelligence agencies to allow them to track communications on the Blackberry messenger in real time. Both camps have engaged in a battle of attrition and as of now the Indian government has given a August deadline to RIM to get the interception keys.
As long as the specter of terrorism continues to loom large, there seems to be little room for a balanced debate in India about the pros and cons of data mining measures.
It has been relatively easy for the Indian government to gain support from the public for measures such as NATGRID, pitching the new technological tools as potent weapons against terror.
But the real test will be to couple effective data collection and analysis with audit controls to prevent blatant abuse of the expanding security apparatus. Even though the government has promised to take steps to ensure transparency and oversight, history offers very little evidence to suggest governments’ words are invariably to be taken at face value.
And even as a wide-ranging anti-corruption movement, which has seen great civic involvement, makes its way across India, privacy and civil liberties issues emerging from data mining are not yet on the discussion table in any meaningful way.
