Social media scraping is safe: MHA

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has told a parliamentary panel that security agencies rely exclusively on open-source intelligence (OSINT) drawn from publicly available information on the internet and social media platforms, stressing that no private or personal data is collected and therefore no privacy is violated.

The MHA’s detailed submission was made to the Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology (2024-25), chaired by Lok Sabha member Nishikant Dubey. The committee tabled its report in Parliament on Monday after seeking clarifications on how the Union Government handles privacy concerns while scraping the internet and social media for intelligence purposes.