In a U-turn, social media exempt from saving text for 90 days

New Delhi, Sep 22: Following public outcry, the government on Tuesday made a U-Turn on a proposed policy and exempted users of social media sites, apps, as also net banking and password-based e-commerce from saving data for a minimum of 90 days from the date of transaction. In a clarification issued to what it called as Draft National Encryption Policy, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology said the following categories of encryption products were being exempted from its purview: - The mass use encryption products, which are currently being used in web applications, social media sites, and social media applications such as Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, etc. - SSL/TLS (Secure Sockets Layer/ Transport Layer Security) encryption products being used in Internet-banking and payment gateways as directed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). - SSL/TLS encryption products being used for e-commerce and password-based transactions. "The draft encryption policy is only a proposal. It is not a final document of the government," Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here. "The policy will consider the views of the public."