DoT asked to ban WePhone app

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The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has been asked by an intelligence agency to block 'WePhone' app which allows callers' identity to remain hidden.

Calls initiated from the 'WePhone' application are routed through a server located abroad and, is difficult to identify or locate the actual calling number or user. Dot had constituted a technical committee which observed that a number of computer or mobile applications offer the facility to spoof CLI over internet.

Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad informed the Lok Sabha, "A reference from an intelligence agency was received by the Department of Telecommunications to block the 'WePhone App' which facilitates its subscriber to spoof the Calling Line Identification (CLI) through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) platform."

He added, "Any call initiated from 'We Phone App' is routed through its server located abroad and therefore is difficult to identify/locate the actual calling number/user."

"After carrying out preliminary technical examination, it has been forwarded to group coordinator, the Department of Electronics and IT (DeitY), who is the competent authority to issue instructions for blocking for public access of any information through any computer resource," he stated.

"Based on the recommendations of the committee, the matter was taken up with the Group Coordinator, Department of Electronics & Information Technology, who issues the direction for blocking such identified websites," the minister said.

He further added that as and when such cases come to the notice of DoT, "these are reported to the Group Coordinator, Department of Electronics and Information Technology".

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Source: TOI