India Buys Israel Tools To Spy On Citizens, Says FT Report (Image:www.pixabay.com/)
Indian government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi allegedly spies citizens using Israeli surveillance tools, says Financial Times in their recent report published on August 30.
According to the report, India secretly observes the personal data of it”s 1.4 billion citizens through a “backdoor”.
The study named “India’s communications ‘backdoor’ attracts surveillance companies”, was prepared by Alexandra Heal, Anna Gross, Benjamin Parkin, Chris Cook and Mehul Srivastava.
“Every day, reams of personal data flow through the subsea cable landing stations that have proliferated around India’s coast, connecting the communications of the world’s most populous country to the rest of the globe”, says the report.
This hardware was installed with the help of an AI (Artificial Intelligence) and data analytics. It search, copy and pump data to Indian security agencies on demand.
This system which FT denotes as a “backdoor” allows “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to snoop on its 1.4bn citizens, part of the country’s growing surveillance regime”.
India being a fast growing communication market, attracts several companies to sell their powerful surveillance tools. These include homegrown providers such as Vehere, as well as less well known Israeli groups like Cognyte or Septier.
According to the FT report, BJP government “has enthusiastically scaled up India’s snooping powers” in the recent times.
Similarly in 2019 and 2021, a hacking tool was found on the phones of Opposition party leaders, journalists and activists, which was known deployed by the Pegasus on instruction of the central government. But the government denied it as a politically motivated allegation. Pegasus is a spyware of Israeli group NSO.
The report also make remarks on the recently passed Union bill on personal data protection. “A personal data protection bill passed this month also gives authorities broad powers to bypass privacy safeguards that critics say legislates “carte blanche” for government surveillance”, it says.
FT also spoke to four people who have worked on submarine cable projects around the world. It”s from them, FT understood how India openly requires telecom companies to install surveillance tech at subsea cable landing stations as well as data centres. These are approved by the Government of India as a condition of operation.
“The surveillance is strictly controlled and all monitoring requests are approved by the Home Secretary”, the centre clarified FT.
As of now, Indian security law enforcement agencies are able to access data via monitoring equipment even without obtaining a court order.
