Telecom companies must protect customers: HRW

Telecom companies must protect customers: HRW

By Bill O'Toole   |   Wednesday, 03 July 2013

Human Rights Watch has continued its campaign for new players in Myanmar's telecoms industry to protect the privacy and freedoms of their customers, after the government announced that Telenor of Norway and Ooredoo from Qatar had been awarded two highly prized licences.

The government announced the two winners of the tender on June 27, almost six months after the process was launched. However, the telecommunications law that will govern how they operate – including what data they have to make available to the government – is yet to be approved by parliament.

Human Rights Watch responded to the tender announcement almost immediately, continuing its months-long campaign for greater transparency and protection of civil liberties in the sector.

"Burma lacks an electronic privacy law to prevent arbitrary and over broad surveillance practices, and the courts have no history of independence from the government," the group said in a statement.

"The Burma military retains broad power to declare public emergencies and take control of telecommunications equipment. In addition, rights-restricting laws that the authorities used in the past to silence critics have not been repealed."

The Institute for Human Rights and Business has expressed similar concerns, warning that despite a relaxation in censorship and surveillance, the "authorities could at any time exert control over the new telecommunications infrastructure and resume practices of widespread surveillance, network disconnection, censorship and arrest and imprisonment of dissidents and journalists".

The institute said it was important that Telenor and Ooredoo "use all the resources available to avoid contributing to adverse human rights impacts through their own activities, and address such impacts where they occur".

Cynthia Wong, a senior Internet researcher at the rights watchdog, agreed that Telenor and Ooredoo need to put in place "strong safeguards" to protect users.

"Burma's long record of rights abuses should give pause to the two license winners about government censorship, illegal surveillance, and even network shutdowns," she said.

"The firms should ... make clear that they will be transparent about government demands, and press the government to enact legal protections for rights."

Of the 11 companies and consortiums that competed in the final round of bidding, Telenor was one of eight that responded to Human Rights Watch's concerns on privacy.

Neither HRW or The Myanmar Times could reach Ooredoo for comment. However, the company's website says it is committed to protecting personal information from "misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure", and also has its performance on privacy independently audited each year.

In an open letter, Telenor's vice president and head of social responsibility, Mai Olgard, said that all of the company's customer data in Myanmar would be managed with the "utmost confidentiality, in accordance with strict standards, in order to prevent any unauthorised access or any use that is beyond what we have agreed with the customer".

"This responsibility also involves respecting human rights such as freedom of expression," she said.

Telenor's website lists a series of "privacy principals" that the company says it follows in all markets, including ensuring that "persons we process data about are properly informed when their personal data is being collected".

However, Jeremy Rathjen, a vice president of Thura Swiss consulting, said it is inevitable that the Myanmar government and law enforcement agencies will have access to data and phone records of both companies.

"If the government demands information, there will probably [be a part of the law] that will require them to hand it over."

But MrRathjen said this would hardly make Myanmar unique: Most countries in the West also force telecom providers to provide sensitive information on customers. "I think the [United States] is even worse on this issue than Myanmar," he said.

http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/telecom-companies-must-protect-customers-hrw/