But in recent months, authoritarian orders targeting VPNs and a new disclosure from telecommunications officials suggest the attack on privacy is entering a new phase.The extent of the government’s surveillance is not known publicly, but the government has made no secret that it wants privileged access to everything Indians do online.… It’s like a black hole.” An anonymous source working on the program told The Times of India that the Secretary of Department of Electronics and Information Technology authorizes all targeted surveillance orders which would then be passed to the telecoms provider.We still do not know if the Central Monitoring System is being used to conduct mass surveillance, but there is so much secrecy about the program that the possibility cannot be ruled out.In 2021, the Indian government tried to force WhatsApp and other online messaging services to remove their encryption and keep a record of all messages in a “traceable” database, leading WhatsApp to sue."