It is not actually snooping: Khurshid on US surveillance

July 02, 2013 04:40 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 09:01 pm IST - New Delhi

File photo External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

File photo External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Tuesday defended the vast U.S. surveillance programme under which India is the fifth most tracked country, saying, “it is not actually snooping.”

“This is not scrutiny and access to actual messages. It is only computer analysis of patterns of calls and emails that are being sent. It is not actually snooping on specifically on content of anybody’s message or conversation”, Mr. Khurshid, who is currently in Brunei to attend series of ASEAN meetings, told reporters.

“Some of the information they (the US) got out of their scrutiny, they were able to use it to prevent serious terrorist attacks in several countries,” he said.

The remarks are in contrast with that of the ministry, which had initially termed as “unacceptable” any privacy violation after whistleblower Edward Snowden, a former technical assistant for the CIA, had blown the lid off US’ National Security Agency’s secret spy programme.

As per the leaked documents, India has emerged as the fifth most tracked country by the US intelligence which used a secret data-mining programme to monitor worldwide internet data.

Meanwhile, quoting the latest documents provided by Snowden, The Guardian newspaper reported over the weekend that US intelligence services were also spying on 38 embassies and diplomatic missions of its allies that included India.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.