SA telecom companies may have been forced to share customer call records
SA’s major telecoms companies have been asked to reveal how many times they have been forced to share sensitive customer call records. Advocacy group Right2know (R2K) has lodged requests for surveillance statistics from MTN‚ Vodacom‚ Telkom and Cell C under the Promotion of Access to Information Act. "Recently, the Daily Maverick reported on a legal loophole that allows magistrates to authorise thousands of ‘surveillance operations’ every year‚" R2K said in a statement on Tuesday. This allows the handing-over of customer call records and meta-data in parallel with the country’s official surveillance law. The usual procedure for a law enforcement agency to legally intercept this type of information involves getting permission from a specially appointed judge. However, a loophole in the Criminal Procedures Act allows law enforcement officials to bypass the judge and, instead‚ approach any magistrate for a warrant‚ forcing a telecoms company to hand over customer call records if they a...
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