PRISM: ISPAI bats for hosting local servers

Even though, the US president Barack Obama defends NSA's PRISM program, the Netizens as well as governments worldwide frown over information snoop. This has put Indian Internet service providers (ISP) in tight spot as consumers raise suspicion.

The revelations by Edward Snodown may come as a surprise to many, but a sneak-peak into Web 2.0 is becoming imperative for governments- and- obvious for a superpower like US. The ISPs, on the other hand, require adherence to security mandate.

A top executive of a Utah-based ISP was recently quoted as saying that the Foreign Intelligence Service Act (FISA) warrant forced him to allow the federal government to monitor the Internet activity of one of their customers.

Even as the Internet giants such as Google and Facebook argue over privacy norms, the leaked documents suggest that the surveillance requests from the US administration were instantaneously and confidentially fulfilled by these firms.

The National Security Agency has obtained direct access and that too without resistance, to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US Internet majors, according to a top secret document obtained by the Guardian.

NSA's control over underwater optic-fiber cables that facilitates more than 90 per cent of the world's voice and data traffic has rattled the local ISPs who want Indian government to establish systems to store domestic communications within the territory.

Speaking to CIOL, ISPAI president Rajesh Chharia said that by way of PRISM the consumers' privacy has been compromised significantly and there is a need to bring appropriate legislation, in addition Internet companies should be asked to locally place their servers.

"In the wake of US-initiated PRISM, countries like Brazil mulling Internet companies to establish regional servers. The Indian government should also step up pressure on US-based corporations to safeguard privacy of Indian Netizens," Chharia said. In the wake of PRISM, he said, consumers get cynical about them.

ISPAI had at infrastructure side realized such things long back, while he feels that the root problem is woven around the deployment of root servers. Chharia said that to ensure protection, either, laws governing these social networking sites should be same for all users or if it's discriminatory, it has to be Indian laws.

"All servers should be located on Indian soil and there should be no infringement without user permission," he said. Chharia said that they have also raised the issue with the recent ICANN meet and with the Indian government. ISPAI is also getting support from the international bodies.

First Published in CIOL