Russia’s digital ministry proposes lifting geolocation data from telecoms secrecy

The Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation has drafted a bill that would lift data on the location of mobile phones from the protection of communications secrecy. Reports TASS.

According to a representative of the ministry, it would enable rapid organisation of searches for missing people.

“Every year tens of thousands of people go missing in the country. Operators can provide service information, including the coordinates of the missing citizens’ devices.”

Currently, a citizen’s communications secrecy is protected by Article 63 of the Law on Communications. Under it, data may be disclosed to third parties or state bodies only by court order.

The proposed amendments would allow access to these data without a court decision – on request from the agencies carrying out operational-search activities. The same applies to geolocation data of smartphones.

The bill has been sent to the relevant federal executive authorities for consideration, after which it will be presented for public discussion.

Earlier, in a December report, the NGO RosKomSvoboda said that in 2020 authorities in various countries signed agreements with local telecom operators for the transfer of geolocation data of citizens under the pretext of curbing the spread of the coronavirus.

Subscribe to ForkLog news on Telegram: ForkLog Feed — full news feed, ForkLog — the most important news and polls.