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When is mobile data not your own?
By Catherine Trautwein, Myanmar Times.
Telcos can find out who users talk to, as well as where and when – and right now, in certain situations, a Posts and Telecommunications Department (PTD) request could lead operators to share that information with police.
This is an excerpt from an article by Catherine Trautwein in the Myanmar Times.
Despite a new telecoms law that empowers the Union government to pursue confidential user information under certain circumstances, a framework around its implementation has yet to be hammered out. Industry players have established stopgap measures that balance consumer rights and compliance.
Section 75 of Myanmar’s 2013 telecoms law says the Union government may direct organisations to help it obtain information or telecommunications damaging to national security and the prevalence of law, so long as doing so does not impact fundamental rights of citizens.
And section 77 says the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) has the right in emergency situations to direct a licensee to intercept or not to operate particular forms of communication, and to obtain necessary information and communications.
At a sustainability briefing last month for Telenor Myanmar, the firm’s CEO Petter Furberg called the telecoms law “balanced” and said his company acknowledged that, around the world, governments have the right to access confidential information to assist in their efforts of preventing and prosecuting serious crimes.
While Myanmar’s government claims a similar prerogative over its own telcos, the legal framework is not yet fully in place and questions remain – especially around what body would authorise requests for information.
