More agencies can now access your call data

The government is finalising a new set of rules that would give any government agency, besides the police, the right to request for phone records. Aloke Tikku reports.

The government is finalising a new set of rules that would give any government agency, besides the police, the right to request for phone records.

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Under the existing law, only a police officer probing a case can seek record of call data for investigation purposes. Nine security agencies — empowered to put phones under surveillance — routinely access phone records.

The new rules will enlarge this list, beginning with the Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) that convinced the finance ministry to push its demand.

Since Sebi wasn’t covered under the existing law — it is neither police nor a security agency — the home ministry decided to create a new category of organisations that can access personal information with the home ministry’s approval, a government official said.