Government Will Soon Know What You Surfed In Internet


Government Will Soon Know What You Surfed In Internet

Bangalore: The Indian government will soon start keeping an eye on internet surfers, tracking websites visited and time spent on browsing. This has been planned by the Department of Telecom and Internet service providers will soon start storing data records of all subscribers.

A new technology called Internet Protocol Detail Record (IPDR) tracks usage patterns and allows security agencies to keep an eye on those who mask their IP address. This technology has been offered by almost all global vendors like Cisco, HP and Nokia Siemens.

As there is no law to keep records of data usage of every subscriber, a committee set by the DoT has suggested that telecom companies should be directed to maintain usage log of subscribers with IPDR standard.

Rajesh Chharia, President, Internet Service Providers Association points out  the time period which is a key thing, besides deploying a system to record data usage by subscribers. For instance, operators at present are required to keep a record of voice calls made by subscribers for six months.

Besides being useful for security agencies, IPDR also allows telecom operators to analyze each subscriber’s consumption pattern in order to look at improving revenues.

The technology is said to gather usage, 95 percent faster than other methods.

“The solution provides the ability to extract customer usage from large IP environments in order to better understand customer usage and tailor offerings accordingly,” says a paper prepared by international industry association TeleManagement Forum.

However the IPDR system has raised concerns over privacy as it collects data of each subscriber.

A recent survey of 11,000 people across 11 countries by a global research firm called Ovum has stated that 68 percent would use a ‘do not track’ feature if it was easily available.

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