India is planning to ban the use of private email services for official communication

The Indian government is planning to ban the use of private email services such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail for official communication by the end of this year, as it seeks to protect important or sensitive data from being spied on.

J. Satyanarayana, the secretary of India’s Department of Electronics and Information Technology, told the Hindu Business Line that the government will instead route all official communication through an email service provided by a government unit.

India’s move comes amid concerns that using email services provided by foreign firms may lead to a loss of control over who is looking at the data being sent and received — as the US National Security Agency has been accused of spying on European governments recently.

➤ Govt officials to be barred from using private e-mail services [Hindu Business Line]