The Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of Russia proposed to exclude data on the location of the subscriber's mobile phone from the secrecy of communications.

The department has already prepared a draft of the relevant amendments to the law "On Communications".

According to Deputy Minister Oleg Ivanov, the amendments do not violate the law on personal data and were developed on behalf of the president in order to finalize the legislation for the prompt search of missing persons.

According to the current legislation, information falling under the secret of communication may be released to third parties on the basis of a court decision.

Ivanov emphasized that tens of thousands of people are lost in Russia every year; not only the resources of federal bodies are used to find them, but also search public organizations and telecom operators are involved.

His words are quoted by RIA Novosti.

“Telecom operators can provide service information for communication facilities, including the coordinates of subscriber devices of missing citizens.

However, at present, the coordinates of subscriber devices are a secret, the observance of which operators are required to ensure.

Coordinates may not always be promptly transferred to the bodies that are engaged in operational-search activities.

And sometimes hours go by, ”Ivanov said.

The press service of the Ministry of Digital Industry also reported that the initiative of the department is a finalized bill that was adopted by the State Duma in the first reading on September 25, 2019.

The document provided for the possibility of obtaining information about the geolocation of mobile devices without a court decision at a reasoned request from law enforcement agencies.

The updated version of the bill prohibits the transmission of the content of negotiations or messages transmitted using mobile devices without the consent of subscribers or in the absence of a court decision.

“The powers of the Russian government to establish the procedure for providing geolocation data have also been excluded.

At the same time, for the previously included in the text of the draft law, providing for the possibility of obtaining information on the geolocation of mobile devices at the request of law enforcement agencies, a clarification has been introduced that this information can be provided only from the equipment of telecom operators, ”the press service of the Ministry of Digital Science said.

The bill was sent for approval to federal departments, the department specified.

Recall that in September 2020, the Kremlin's website published a list of instructions from Russian President Vladimir Putin following a meeting with members of the Public Chamber on June 25.

In particular, it was instructed to develop "measures aimed at improving the accuracy of determining the location of the terminal equipment of subscribers in the mobile radio-electronic communications network in order to quickly carry out search and rescue operations in the natural environment."

According to the coordinator of the search and rescue squad "Liza Alert" Oleg Leonov, the legislative initiative will make it possible to more effectively search for the missing.

“By the bill, the location of the terminal user equipment is removed from the category of“ information about subscribers ”and is transferred to the category of information about communication services, respectively, in the event of a loss of a person, this data can be promptly transferred to the bodies carrying out operational-search activities.

Of course, this will help us, "RIA Novosti quotes him.

He also cited statistics, according to which, in 2020, the death of 976 missing persons was recorded, with mobile phones turned on.

However, this figure is not final, since Lisa Alert receives data on about 15-18% of the total number of all missing in the country.

“Accordingly, in general, this is about 5.5 thousand lives per year in the country - this is a lot,” he said.

“Therefore, these changes to the Law on Communications will really help save a lot of people.”

"To search for the missing, you must use all possible methods"

According to Denis Kuskov, director of the Telecomdaily information and analysis agency, the amendments proposed by the Ministry of Digital Science are important from the point of view of finding missing people.

"For the reason that really companies that are engaged in search operations could not get data on time, and this reduced the percentage of people who could be found," the expert said in an interview with RT.

At the same time, he noted that if it is possible to obtain information about the whereabouts of people by third parties, it is necessary to make a certain filter: “When a person who requests data should be clearly marked in this database, and in the event of a situation should explain the reason for his interest in this or that person. "

In turn, Andrei Svintsov, deputy chairman of the State Duma committee on information policy, information technology and communications, believes that restrictions on situations of using location information should be spelled out in the legislative initiative.

“In general, to search for our citizens, of course, we must use all possible methods.

But I consider it unacceptable to fully and freely use the geolocation data of mobile devices.

This can only be used by law enforcement agencies, special services, for carrying out operational-search activities, ”he explained.