Kathmandu. KATHMANDU: The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers has directed all three tiers of government governments not to scan official documents using mobile apps.

According to a circular issued by the Information Technology Section of the office, this step is primarily to ensure digital security and data privacy. When using various external mobile scanning apps (e.g. cam scanners) available in the market, the risk of scanned content reaching and storing foreign servers is high. In this way, the leakage of state policy decisions, confidential comments and sensitive documents through digital means is a major challenge to national security.

“It is the responsibility of every office and employee to ensure confidentiality and secure documentation of official documents used in government work,” reads the circular. At present, the trend of scanning documents with mobile cameras in government offices or taking pictures for government correspondence, decisions and records has increased the risk of sensitive information reaching the hands of unauthorized persons.

According to Deepa Dahal, press and research expert of Prime Minister Balendra Shah, scanning government documents through mobile apps completely protects national security and privacy. Most mobile scanning apps have direct access to user data, and there’s no guarantee on which servers the data will be stored on. The leakage of sensitive state documents through digital means is a serious violation of data privacy. Therefore, this directive should be understood not only as a technical alert but also as an imperative step for national security.