NEW DELHI - India told Google and Skype on Wednesday that they must set up servers in the country to allow law enforcers to screen traffic, as it widened its security offensive on Internet communications firms.
The government has already told the maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, Research in Motion (RIM), that it must set up a server in India to allow security forces to intercept the phone's encrypted messaging system.
"We have made this clear to other companies" that they must do the same, Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said.
He added that notices were being dispatched to Google, which uses powerful encryption technology for its Gmail email service, and Skype, the Internet phone provider.
"All people who operate communication services in India should have a server in India," Pillai told a news conference. "This applies to all."
The government's statements came two days after it gave BlackBerry a two-month window to provide a way to read the smartphone's corporate email and messenger chatting services, or face a shutdown of the core functions of the phone.
Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia, a key BlackBerry rival, has already acceded to the government's demands, announcing this week it would set up a server in India by early November to give security forces access to data carried by its smartphones.
India's government, battling multiple insurgencies in areas from Kashmir in the northwest to the remote northeast, is worried that militants could use encrypted services to coordinate attacks.
"It is basically a debate between public security versus the privacy of citizens," Nareshchandra Singh, principal research analyst at Gartner global consultancy, told AFP.
"It is my belief that the upper hand is with security rather than privacy and the government will have to draw a fine line," Singh said.
Home ministry officials say Skype, which uses Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol (VOIP) technology to send calls over the Internet, poses a difficulty for the domestic intelligence services.
"It is very difficult to track communications on VOIP, especially if the servers are not within India," Gartner's Singh said.
BlackBerry's reprieve came after the government said the smartphone's Canadian maker had made proposals to give security forces "lawful access" to messages carried on the handsets.
The government began testing RIMs monitoring proposals on Wednesday to assess their effectiveness.
"Discussions with BlackBerry are still continuing. We have given them 60 days' time" to find a complete solution to government demands for access, Home Secretary Pillai said.
India, which has the world's fastest-growing number of mobile users, is a key market for BlackBerry, which has 1.1 million customers in the country.
BlackBerry has become a global market leader in the smartphone sector thanks to its heavy encryption, and analysts say any compromise with the Indian government could damage its popularity with its high-profile clientele.
RIM is already facing threats to its dominance in the smartphone segment from other feature-rich rivals globally, such as Apple.
But its reputedly impenetrable data protection has also raised a chorus of security concerns from governments in the Middle East and elsewhere.
The Times of India reported Wednesday that the reprieve for BlackBerry resulted from the flood of international visitors expected for the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi next month, as well as US President Barack Obama's planned visit in November, rather than any breakthrough in talks with the company.
The blackout of BlackBerry's core features would have disrupted communications for the two events, the newspaper said, adding there would be more talks with RIM before Obama's visit.
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