This paper brings forth a consumer perspective on the recently notified Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT rules), in India, which place obligations on Significant Social Media Intermediaries (SSMI) to enable identification of originators of certain content on their platforms. While it is important to fix accountability in case of misuse of digital platforms for spreading problematic content, the same should not risk consumer welfare on parameters of privacy and data protection. The requirement of identifying originators of content is likely to weaken End to End Encryption. This may in turn infringe upon the privacy of consumers, thereby denting their trust on data driven digital technology enabled services. Section 1 of the paper gives a background to the run-up to the revised IT rules, while Sect. 2 gives an overview of encryption. Section 3 deep dives into a consumer perspective on encryption, and explains the likely adverse impact of mandatory originator identification on consumer welfare. The paper concludes with Sect. 4, which gives a few recommendations for the way forward.

本文提出了消费者对印度最近通知的 2021 年信息技术（中介指南和数字媒体道德规范）规则（IT 规则）的看法，该规则赋予重要社交媒体中介 (SSMI) 义务，以识别他们平台上的某些内容。虽然在滥用数字平台传播有问题的内容的情况下确定问责制很重要，但同样不应在隐私和数据保护参数方面冒着消费者利益的风险。识别内容发起者的要求可能会削弱端到端加密。这反过来可能会侵犯消费者的隐私，从而削弱他们对数据驱动的数字技术支持服务的信任。本文的第 1 部分介绍了修订 IT 规则的准备工作背景，而教派。图 2 给出了加密的概述。第 3 节深入探讨了消费者对加密的看法，并解释了强制发起者身份识别对消费者福利可能产生的不利影响。论文以Sect结束。4，它为前进的道路提供了一些建议。