Context: A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel issued notice to the ministries of Home Affairs, Information Technology, Communications and Law and Justice, seeking their stand on the plea by an NGO.

• The Delhi High Court sought response from the Centre on a petition claiming that the citizens’ right to privacy was being “endangered” by surveillance programmes such as Centralised Monitoring System (CMS), Network Traffic Analysis (NETRA) and National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID).

Centralised Monitoring System (CMS)

• CMS is a centralized system to monitor communications on mobile phones, landlines and Internet traffic in the country.
• It claimed that the functional features of CMS project allows for the state and authorized agencies to bypass the existing procedural safeguards to be followed while issuing Lawful Interception and Monitoring orders (LIMs).

Network Traffic Analysis (NETRA)

• It stated that NETRA is a massive dragnet surveillance system designed specifically to monitor the nation's internet networks including voice over internet traffic passing through software programs such as Skype or Google Talk, besides write-ups in tweets, status updates, emails, instant messaging transcripts, Internet calls, blogs and forums.

National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID)

• NATGRID project results in a real-time profiling of individuals through collection, aggregation, and analysis of metadata of individuals, which could reveal information such as civil, political, religious affiliation, social status, support to a charitable organization, subject's involvement in an intimate relationship and others.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/hc-seeks-centres-stand-on-pil-against-netra-natgrid-surveillance-systems/article33228384.ece

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