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India Tax Agency will gain access to citizen email, social accounts (archive.ph)

submitted 3 weeks ago by quickenparalysespunk@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/privacy@lemmy.world

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Synopsis

Starting April 1, 2026, the income tax department will have the authority to access social media, emails, and other digital spaces to curb tax evasion. This has been granted to them under the new income tax bill. This will also include search and seizure powers over your assets and documents, which have raised major privacy concerns. Experts warn of challenges to fundamental privacy rights without judicial oversight and procedural safeguards.

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[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Message contents are fairly unimportant. It is the metadata that counts.

Also encrypted messaging is illegal in India

[–] EngineerGaming@feddit.nl 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah, this is more of a joke considering most emails are not encrypted. As for illegality - I guess this is just one of the laws a lot of people just have to casually break. I didn't quite understand how exactly the new rules would be enforced, but seems like avoiding passive detection at least would be trivial.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Emails are encrypted in transit but they are not typically encrypted at the mailbox. As for Gpg I would avoid it as it has only uses a single key and if someone gets access to the key they can decrypt stored messages. This is very different than a lot of other encrypted messagers that rotate keys based on an algorithm like double ratchet with old keys being deleted. If you delete a message in a app like Signal there is a very high likely hood that a message can not be recovered even if you device gets compromised later and the adversary stores all data that goes over the internet.

[–] EngineerGaming@feddit.nl 1 points 3 weeks ago

Yes, I understand the limitations of GPG. I myself mostly use OMEMO which does have PFS. However, there isn't really an email encryption scheme that is as widely adopted (and even this is not saying much).