Big Brother law adopted: telephony and internet providers must store clients’ data for 6 months

The Chamber of Deputies has approved, with 197 votes in favor, 18 votes against and 13 abstentions, the bill regarding the storage of personal data processed by telephony and internet providers, also known as the Big Brother law.

The bill stipulates that internet, mobile and fixed telephony providers are compelled to store for 6 months certain personal data of their clients, which should be sent, on demand, to authorities for the prevention, investigation, and prosecution of severe crimes.

“Providers of landline and mobile telephony and internet are compelled to store, for 6 months, all data regarding the telephone conversations and e-mail exchange, with the exception of the content of the electronic correspondence or phone conversation,” says the project.

In the case of landline and mobile telephony networks, the data that should be stores is “the number of the caller, the number of the called person, the number of the person that the call was directed to, as well as their names.”

In the case of internet networks, the data that must be stored is: “the user, the telephony service used, the number of the caller and of the receiver, the name and address of the subscribers and the equipment they use,” says the bill.

Internet and telephony providers have the obligation to send the required data within 48 hours since they receive the demand, or, if this is not possible, in at most 5 days.

The bill also stipulates that the people whose data are withheld must be informed within 48 hours since the demand is transmitted.

As Leonard Orban, minister of foreign affairs, said at the beginning of this month, Romania risks fines of over EUR 30,000 a day if it does not adopt as soon as possible this law, since an infringement procedure has already been started against it.

The bill was adopted in parliament in 2008, but was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court the next year on the grounds that it affects fundamental rights.