Romanian deputy to propose legislation that allows prepay cards to be intercepted by secret services

Newsroom 22/07/2013 | 13:30

Deputy Sebastian Ghita, a member of the Social- Democrat Party (PSD), intends to propose during this fall’s parliamentary session, a draft law that will make it possible for prepay cards to be intercepted by the secret services.

Ghita is a member in the permanent commission of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies which controls the activity of the Romanian Intelligence Service. He is also the owner of the Romania TV channel.

“We must generate a legal framework which makes it possible that, in case these pre-pay cards are used in Romania for committing crimes, they can be kept track of and have the same status as ordinary phones,” said Ghita in an interview for Hotnews.ro.

Ghita also said that, if this draft makes it into law, people who buy prepay cards must present their personal identity code, their name and address. “This data will be centralized by an authority and in case a demand for phone monitoring is submitted, the operator must present the personal identity code and the name of the person who used a certain prepay card.”

The PSD deputy also added a program for the surveillance of communication via the internet should be put into place. He said a program similar to PRISM should be implemented by the Romanian secret services, either directly or in collaboration with other partners abroad- “if they have not already implemented such a tool.”