The Centre’s insecure attitude on surveillance is now on full display, as the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) amended the Unified License Agreement on December 21, asking telecom and Internet service providers to maintain call detail records for at least two years, instead of the current one-year practice. The additional time was apparently based on requests from multiple security agencies.
Through a notification dated December 21, the DoT has said all call detail record, exchange detail record, and IP detail record of communications “exchanged” on a network must be archived for two years or until specified by the government for “scrutiny” for security reasons. Internet service providers will also have to maintain details of “internet telephony” in addition to the usual IP detail record for a period of two years, the notification said.
“Many security agencies pointed out to us that they needed data even after a year, since most investigations take more than that to be completed,” a senior DoT official said.
Under Clause No. 39.20 of the licence agreement that the DoT has with the operators, the latter have to preserve records including CDRs and IP detail records (IPDR), for at least one year for scrutiny by the Licensor (which is DoT) for “security reasons,” and the Licensor “may issue directions/instructions from time to time” with respect to these records. The licence mandates that CDRs be provided by mobile companies to law-enforcement agencies and to various courts upon their specific requests or directions.
In March 2020, the government sought call data records of all mobile subscribers across various pockets of the country for specific days. In an official statement, the Ministry of Communications had then said: “There is no infringement of privacy of any person. No personal details are collected. There is no tracking of any phone number.”
