Indian government has banned the third-party email services in its government offices including Google, Yahoo, Hotmail etc. Indian government officials will now be having pretty much limited access to internet in their offices. Apart from the limited internet, they will be additionally monitored and the content which will be inappropriate for productivity of the officials, will be blocked.
Indian government, led by PM Narendra Modi, has issued the third-party email ban notifications to offices. The notice mentions the use of only National Informatics Centre (NIC) prescribed email services for communicating. The reasons cited are security and low productivity concerns.
The notification is called “Policy on use of Information Technology resources of Government of India” and “E-mail Policy of Government of India” – as reported by Economic Times
“The e-mail services provided by other service providers shall not be used for any official communication. Misuse of these resources can result in unwanted risk and liabilities for the government. NIC may block content which, in the opinion of the organisation concerned, is inappropriate, or may adversely affect the productivity of the users.”
The total number of the government official is about five million and by the end of this year, they are expected to use NIC- the government’s secure email service. To ensure the safe communication of critical and sensitive information, government has allocated Rs. 100 crore for this project.
The policy also contains the terms of usage of social media sites on government networks and using high-security settings on such websites. Users won’t post offensive, threatening, defamatory, bullying, racist, hateful, harassing, obscene or sexist posts or comments which could cause damage to the reputation of the organisation.
Different governments of all over the world have been trying their best in the recent past to secure their secret and important communications after the Snowden saga in United States.
The policy was issued on February 18 and it restricts the use of email service providers other than NIC in government offices.
Also read: Facebook Launches Internet.org App and Free Access to 38 Websites in India
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