Telecom companies blast surveillance law

2 By TBT staff, VILNIUSDuring their final parliamentary session, the outgoing Seimas amended the Euro-integration Data Retention Act, obliging fixed and mobile phone operator companies to register telephone conversations, SMS and e-mails.The amendment puts the onus on the telecommunication companies to monitor the calls and provide them to the government when asked. Tele2 representative Andrius Baranauskas told The Baltic Times that it would be a mistake for the president to sign the bill into law. "That a company and the customers of a company should pay for national security – well it's just not right," Baranauskas said."We hope that the president stays with his original stance and won't pass the costs onto companies, but if he does, the costs will be factored into the costs of the company," he said.He said while the costs wouldn't be passed on directly to customers because of the tight market, it would hinder his company's expansion plans.The law now states that communication companies will have to save the phone numbers of both senders and receivers of calls and SMS, as well as their names, last names, addresses, nicknames, IP addresses and other information. All customer data must be kept for at least six months.President Valdas Adamkus vetoed a previous bill on the same subject because companies would have had to foot the bill. The president said he thinks the government should pay.The law is in place as part of a Europe-wide initiative to tighten control on criminal movement.Tele2 does not see this as part of their business."If we have to invest into homeland security - well we think that this law isn't fair," Baranauskas said.The Seimas also approved Communication Minister Algirdas Butkevius' proposal to remove the provision under which equipment necessary for storing the data and costs related to maintenance would be compensated from the state budget. "No such thing is in place in any EU country," Butkevicius said.The Special Investigation Service under the Ministry of Interior will have access to information on criminals that has been gathered by the companies. Some have dubbed the law the 'Big Brother' law, but the Electronic Communication Division Head under the Ministry of Transport and Communication, Valentinus Kvetkus, said this would not give investigators the chance to listen to conversations."This is for data, not content. It is just for the traffic – you can't keep the data, but only the communication event like who called who at what time," he said.Kvetkus suggested that using companies to pay for the surveillance would be cheaper due to privatization of the costs and would reduce opportunities for corruption.Communication companies were already obliged under previous legislation to retain most data concerning communications. The amendments provision, however, registering unanswered calls and retaining data for up to one year in case it contains information necessary for investigating felonies, instead of the previous requirement of six months.Provisions of the Data Retention Act will not be applicable to the content of electronic communications.The law was adopted into the Lithuanian legal system with 52 MP votes in favor, one against and 23 abstentions. o