Telecom regulator admits it violates right to privacy

Santo Domingo.- The Dominican Telecomm Institute (Indotel) yesterday confirmed its regulation authorizing national security agencies access to phone calls, when "necessary as part of an ongoing investigation by an attack on the legal rights protected by the Constitution, laws, decrees, regulations and rulings."

Indotel’s statement responds to the Press and Law Foundation’s complaint which calls the regulation unconstitutional since it would force phone service providers to open their records on calls, while the agency cites safeguards which in its view, “protect fundamental human rights."

Press and Law Foundation president Namphi Rodriguez said Indotel’s regulation establishes an unsupervised judicial system to prosecute crimes and a "gross violation" of the right to privacy.