Government clarifies on seeking call data records from telecom firms

Dismissing surveillance concerns, the government on Wednesday said that it has sought mobile call data from service providers only to improve the quality of services.

“There were complaints of call drops from various places after which the government asked for call data records randomly and in bulk to investigate how many attempts it looks to connect calls and number of call drops," said the Department of Telecom (DOT) said in a statement.

The DOT has started building an in-house platform backed by big data analytics to address incessant complaints of poor quality. For this task, the DOT has asked the call data records from a mass scale from telecom operators, said the DOT.

Earlier mobile service providers raised alarm over the DOT letter of seeking mass scale call data records from them.

The Opposition Congress also raised concern over the issue and alleged that the NDA government at the Centre wanted to put surveillance on its citizens.

However, the DOT clarified that “it is seeking only anonymous data and does not contain names of either the maker or receiver of calls. There is no infringement of the privacy of any person. No personal details are collected. There is no tracking of any phone number.”

"There is no surveillance of any kind. The DOT stands committed to respect the sanctity and privacy of mobile users,”the DOT said.
“There is also no question whatsoever of ascertaining the content of the call. Only if any call is terminated within 30 seconds and the same number is again dialled immediately, such calls are added to arrive at the final figure of call drops," the DOT said.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), a telecom lobby group, which had earlier expressed concern over the seeking data by the government, said in a statement it has discussed the issue with the DOT and satisfied with the government explanation on the matter.

"Being satisfied, we have co-operated with the DOT to source the information sought by the DOT to improve network quality and address call drops," Rajan Mathews, Director General, COAI said in a statement.