Tuesday, June 11, 2013
The
recent exposure in the media of the US National Security Agency (NSA)
mining internet and telephone data for intelligence purposes violates the
sovereignty of nations and the privacy of individuals who use such internet
services. The media revelations indicate that major telecom companies
such as Verizon, AT&T and internet companies such as Google, Microsoft,
Yahoo, Apple and Facebook have, in effect, become tools of the US
government under the PRISM project. They also intercept cable lines for
this purpose.
It
is significant that India is a major target of such intelligence gathering. It
is the fifth largest target of such snooping, even ahead of countries such as
China and Russia. The US official defense, including President Obama’s
own response, is that the NSA was spying only on “foreigners”; no US citizens’s
privacy was violated and no US laws were broken; and this was being done in the
US national interest.
It
is now clear that the current control of internet and its global governance
under a US Department of Commerce contract means that the US government
controls the internet. With the increase of internet’s importance to
global communications, the dangers of such untrammeled control for other
countries and the rights of its citizens are now clear. India must
immediately protest on such violation of its citizen’s rights and violation of
its sovereignty.
Not
only should the government of India protest against the intrusive
intelligence gathering by the US with the help of companies such as
Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and Facebook etc, but India should also join hands
with other countries to make these companies accountable to people who
use their services across the globe. India must also press for an
immediate initiative to democratize internet governance and ensure that the US
intelligence agencies do not override the sovereignty of countries and
the rights of individuals.
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