Romanian Telecom Ops To Work With Authorities, Supply Communications Data

The information will be made available to the Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reform, prosecutors, the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) and the Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE), to be used within investigations, discovery and tracking of serious crimes, according to Law 298/2008 on the recording of data generated or processed by electronic communication services suppliers for the public or public communications networks, published Friday, November 21, in the Official Gazette.

 

The data will be stored in electronic format through a database which will be created and managed, through their own funds, by the fixed and mobile telecommunications operators, as well as by internet service providers.

 

Spending connected to the creation and management of the database will be fiscally deductible.

 

Categories of data stored include the tracking and identification of the communication source and its destination, the communication support and the communication equipment used or the devices employed by the user as equipment, as well as the location of the mobile communications equipment.

 

In addition, the operator will store data necessary to determine the date, hour and duration of the communication.

 

The law states that traffic and tracking data of individuals and companies will be stored, as well as additional data required for the identification of the subscriber or registered user.

 

The normative act does not apply for the contents of the communication or the information sought during the use of a communication network.

 

The request for data transmission will only be possible once criminal investigations have started, when the court allows it and the prosecutor unfolding or supervising criminal investigations requests it.

 

The authority in charge with monitoring the application of Law 298/2008 is the National Authority for the Supervision of Personal Data Processing.

 

According to the normative act, any intentional accessing or transfer of data kept without authorization constitutes a crime and is punishable by a one to five years prison term.

 

In addition, tampering with the investigation, namely intervention between the authorities concerned and the data required, constitutes a crime an is punishable by a six months to one year prison term.

 

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