Cellphone service providers who fail to keep information on their clients could be fined R100 000 for each day of non-compliance, according to draft interception legislation introduced in Parliament.
In turn, customers who sold or gave away their cellphones or SIM cards could be imprisoned for up to 12 months for failing to obtain and relay the recipient’s personal information to a service provider.
The information obtained in this fashion would be stored on a central electronic database, making it easier for law-enforcement agencies to trace all previous owners of a phone or SIM card, Parliament’s justice portfolio committee heard on Tuesday.
State law adviser Ina Botha told committee members the Bill amended existing legislation on the interception of communications in how it applied to the cellphone industry.
It sought to replace the current, partly paper-based information-base of service providers Vodacom, MTN and Cell C with a central electronic one.
It spells out more clearly what information is required to be stored, criminalises non-compliance and sets out penalties.
The Bill also shifts the onus for keeping information from sellers and distributors to service providers.
It prevents service providers from activating a SIM card or allowing the use of a cellphone on its network without having stored the card or phone’s particulars on a database, which is to be set up at their own cost.
They also had to obtain, verify and store the full names, identity numbers and addresses of the client, and ensure the information was securely stored.
Individuals who sold or gave away their cellphones or SIM cards to anyone other than a family member had to obtain and verify that person’s full names, identity number and address, and notify the service provider of the change in ownership.
The Bill gives service providers 12 months to obtain the required information in terms of cellphones and SIM cards already in circulation.
After the 12 months, they had to disconnect service to customers whose information they had not obtained, except for emergency calls, customer-care calls and calls for the purposes of compliance.
The original Act regulates the interception of communications in the investigation of serious crimes. This could only be done with authorisation from a judge.
Amendments proposed in the Bill would boost the effectiveness of the Act, particularly from the perspective of law-enforcement agencies, said Botha.
It would allow law enforcers to approach a central source for information rather than having to follow a paper trail.
Furthermore, there was no burden on government resources as service providers would bear the cost.
The cellphone companies, the police, the defence force, the National Intelligence Agency, the South African secret service and the directorate of public prosecutions were consulted in drawing up the Bill.
They have been invited to make submissions at a public hearing of the committee next Tuesday.
Principal state-law adviser Lawrence Bassett told the committee service providers were in agreement with the broad concept of the amendment Bill, but had some concerns about some technical aspects. These were expected to be raised next week. — Sapa