‘No key documents on WhatsApp, no smartphones at meetings’: Centre’s new guidelines

In light of frequent violations of national communication guidelines and government directions to prevent leaks of classified information, the Centre has issued a revised communication advisory formulated by the Intelligence agencies after reviewing the gaps in the existing system.

The revised communication guidelines have asked all government officials to refrain from using WhatsApp, Telegram, etc., to share confidential information since the servers of these apps are controlled by private companies abroad, and this information could be misused by anti-Indian forces. Furthermore, officials should utilize e-office applications to communicate during ‘Work From Home’ (WFH).

As part of the revised guidelines, officials were also instructed to stop sharing sensitive information through home setups during WFH, and the home systems must only be connected to the office network via a Virtual Private Network of the National Informatics Centre (NIC). In addition to taking ‘urgent steps’ to prevent such violations, all ministries have been requested to strictly follow communication security guidelines and policies when dealing with confidential or restricted communications.

‘It is not recommended that classified documents be stored on officials’ mobile devices, and should not be shared with officials via mobile since the new communication apps’ servers are owned by private companies and could pose a threat to national security,’ a senior official familiar with the development said under condition of anonymity.

According to the new communication norms, distributed to all Union Ministries and Departments, the top officials are forbidden to use smartwatches or smartphones during meetings when discussing classified or national security-related issues. They are also prohibited from using various devices used as office assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa, Apple HomePod, etc.

The new guidelines also include guidelines on virtual meetings, which has become the norm for the Covid-19 process for the past two years. Officials are advised to not use private apps like Google Meet or Zoom instead they are to use video conference facilities provided by the Department of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), National Informatics Centre (NIC) with passwords to access the chat rooms and waiting rooms.