Government Recognizes And Respects Right Of Privacy, Says IT Minister

The Government has finally cleared its stand on the 'Right to Privacy' issue and said that it has no plans to breach the privacy of citizens. This development comes a day after WhatsApp filed a petition against new IT rules. The app moves to Delhi High Court as new rules want them to trace the origin of the messages.

"Requiring messaging apps to trace chats is the equivalent of asking us to keep a fingerprint of every single message sent on WhatsApp, which would break end-to-end encryption and fundamentally undermine people's right to privacy," a spokesperson of the app said.

Surprisingly, the messaging app has received support from many experts around the world who are opposing the new IT rules.

Govt Issues Clarification After WhatsApp Petition

However, Minister for Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad states that the Government is not violating the privacy of people. He said that the Government has the responsibility to keep the law and order in the country. In addition, he states that none of the new rules will impact WhatsApp's functioning.

"Government fully recognizes and respects the right of privacy. Ordinary users of WhatsApp have nothing to fear about the new Rules. Its entire objective is to find out who started the message that led to the commissioning of specific crimes mentioned in the Rules," the minister added.

On the other hand, Google and Facebook announced that they will comply with all new norms and regulations of new IT rules.

What Exactly Is Traceability?

WhatsApp claims that all sent and received messages are encrypted, which means no one is allowed to decrypt the messages.

In addition, the messaging app states that end-to-end encryption does not allow telecom operators and internet providers to decrypt the message. In fact, WhatsApp cannot trace the details. However, experts close to the development said traceability will allow companies to track and store the details of all messages.

We understand that the Government wants to maintain law and order in the country, but still, this matter needs more clarification as some people copy and paste messages through other social media platforms.

So, experts believe that it is not possible to track the exact origin of the messages. However, we believe that Government should come up with a strong policy, where the privacy of the citizen should not breach.