The Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, obliges telecom service providers to "maintain extreme secrecy" in matters concerning lawful interception.
In addition, the IT Act, 2000, and its associated rules allow the government to prevent publication of aggregate data in relation to lawful interception and other data disclosure demands from the government and law enforcement agencies.
The company said it has not included countries in which it operates where no such demands were received.
"We have focused on the two categories of law enforcement demands which account for the overwhelming majority of all such activity: lawful interception and access to communications data," the company said.
Vodafone said though it respects the right to privacy of every customer but it also has to abide by the laws of various countries which require it to disclose information about its customers to law enforcement agencies or other government authorities.
"If we do not comply with a lawful demand for assistance, governments can remove our licence to operate, preventing us from providing services to our customers," Vodafone said.
Vodafone says govts have direct access to eavesdrop in some countries
(Reuters) Vodafone, the world's second-biggest mobile phone company, said government agencies in a small number of countries in which it operates have direct access to its network, enabling them to listen in to calls.
Security agencies across the world, and in particular in the United States and Britain, have faced greater scrutiny since Edward Snowden, a former contractor with the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), disclosed the extent of their surveillance to newspapers.
Snowden's disclosures caused an international uproar, showing that U.S. and British agencies' monitoring programmes took in ordinary people's telephone and electronic communications.
Vodafone on Friday published a "Disclosure Report" which
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