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Romania Telecom Regulator Urges Amendments To Law On Personal Data Storage

Liviu Nistoran, head of Romania’s National Communications Authority (ANC), will propose amendments to article 20 of the law on the storage of data generated or processed by communications suppliers, aiming to ban the recording of the contents of phone conversations, text messages or e-mails.
Romania Telecom Regulator Urges Amendments To Law On Personal Data Storage
23 ian. 2009, 15:30, English

"In my opinion, article 20 is equivocal and could pave the way for abuses. By amending this article, the law will observe the provisions of European Directive 2006/24/EC," Nistoran sad Friday.

The article stipulates that, to prevent and counteract national security threats, the competent authorities, namely, the Ministry of Interior, prosecutors, the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) and the Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE), can access, under the laws regulating national security measures, the data stored by communication suppliers and public electronic communication networks.

"The stipulation «stored data» could also imply the contents of a phone conversation, text message or e-mail. This article can be scrapped through an emergency decree," said Nistoran.

The proposal will be submitted to the government.

The mentioned law transposes into local legislation the provisions of Directive 2006/24/EC on the storage of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or public communications networks and, amending Directive 2002/58/EC, published in the Official Journal of the European Union in April 2006.

The Romanian mobile telephony market includes Orange Romania – 10.2 million clients, Vodafone Romania – 9.5 million users, Cosmote Romania – 5.2 million clients, RCS&RDS – 1.2 million subscribers (October 2008) and Telemobil – some 500,000 (at the end of June 2007). The largest fixed telephony operators are Romtelecom, UPC Romania and RCS&RDS.