Government to ban Gmail, Yahoo! and other email services

The recent news about 5 million Gmail accounts being compromised has been making headlines all over the web. This has made Gmail users cautious and many of them have changed their passwords. It also raises security questions about Gmail and may not encourage new visitors to opt for Gmail.

It seems that the recent Gmail password hack has also alerted the Government about official data being secure on Gmail servers. According to media reports, Government officials, ministers and bureaucrats may soon be restricted to use email services such as Gmail, Yahoo!, and others which hosts their servers outside India.

Also Read: 5 million Gmail passwords leaked; is your email ID in danger too?

A new draft email policy will come into force by the Government, which states that services by National Informatics Centre (NIC) will be the only means of official email communication for all government work. NIC is the government’s official email service provider.

The policy, according to the report, also states that service providers other than the NIC can be used for personal emails. However, the policy also restricts officials to forward emails from their official IDs to their personal IDs. The policy also states that government organisations can use independent email servers, provided they are hosted in India.

The report also stated that the NIC had provided official email IDs to more than 3.5 million employees.