The Indian government has asked WhatsApp to digitally fingerprint each text sent on the app without breaking its encryption as the government seeks to track the shared content, The Economic Times reported.

WhatsApp should be able to identify the origin of the text and how many people have read it and forwarded it without having to read it, the report said citing unnamed senior government officials.

“Fingerprinting WhatsApp messages will help find the originator of the message. That is all we want,” the official cited above told ET.

The official added that they are not keen on reading the messages but if they spot a problematic message, WhatsApp should be able to help them track the sender.