The Ministry of Home Affairs has told a parliamentary panel that security agencies use open-source intelligence from public sources, including social media, to gather information, emphasising that no privacy breach occurs as personal data isn't collected.
The Ministry's submission was made to the Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology (2024-25), chaired by Lok Sabha member Nishikant Dubey, which tabled its report on Monday (March 30, 2026).
The committee had sought to know from the Ministry how it dealt with the issue of privacy while scraping through the internet and through social media.
"Publicly available information on the internet and social media platforms is used for intelligence gathering. No private or personal information is gathered from social media. Hence, privacy is never violated," the Ministry told the panel.
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