Internet Freedom Foundation red flags telecom department’s move to seek call details

Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), a digital rights organization, refuted the telecom department’s (DoT) claims that its demand for bulk call data records (CDRs) was to analyze call drops.

The organization said CDRs may lead to mass surveillance of Indian citizens. IFF also raised the need for surveillance reforms in the country.
The RTI responses don’t support the claims of the telecom department that bulk CDRs were collected only for the purpose of analyzing call drops, said IFF in a statement.

We received RTI responses from DoT's Licensed Service Area Units in Haryana, Kolkata, Kochi, Shillong and Pune. The reasons provided by these units for requisitioning bulk call data records do not mention call drops. 2/n

— Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) (@internetfreedom) June 16, 2020

This development comes at a when it was reported that some units of the DoT were seeking CDRs of people in some circles on a routine basis. To recap, a CDR of a subscriber simply means a string of information about that particular mobile phone number for a specific time period which includes details such as subscriber’s name, the details of calls, the duration of each call, rough location of the caller etc.

In March, the Cellphone Operators Association of India (COAI), in a complaint to Anshu Prakash, DoT Secretary, flagged requests by local DoTs for access to CDRs across multiple states. Also, the Apex Advisory Council for Telecom in India (ACT) had raised concerns over this issue as well. It is worth noting that IFF seeks to ensure that Indian citizens can use the Internet with liberties guaranteed by the Constitution. The organization was born out of the ‘SaveTheInternet’ movement for net neutrality.