Communications Punishment possible if telecom operators decline to surrender requested data

As per a bill currently being discussed in parliament, future telecom operators may be punished if they fail to offer data on request by government agencies.

The First Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly recently held a meeting to continue its detailed review of the Bill for the Legal System Governing the Interception and Protection of Communications. 

Government officials sat in at the meeting.

At the post-meeting press conference, in which the officials did not participate, President of the committee Ella Lei emphasized the proposal regarding the obligation laid upon telecom operators to submit data.

The proposal, which is stated in Article 11 of the bill, stipulates that when criminal police agencies, such as Judiciary Police, “view or obtain data from the user databases of telecom operators through data interconnection or any other means,” the relevant operators will not have the right to decline or delay the submission, unless they have justifiable reasons.

Failure to comply with this provision, if passed by the parliament, will constitute an administrative violation.

At the same time, Lei also disclosed that the government had added a new proposal into the bill; if the bill is passed at the parliament, future competent agencies will be empowered take a step further and request the data through the issuance of orders. In such a case, concerned telecom operators must surrender the data within a designated period.

Failure to offer up the data in a timely manner will constitute a criminal offence instead of an administrative violation.

Citing the government officials, Lei explained that the alteration was made based on the “importance of criminal investigations” and after studying other sources of legal references.

According to Lei, the bill proposes August 1 as the promulgation date.