Service provider blasted for illegally acquiring personal data

Company is responsible for ensuring the privacy of the data of its customer

KARACHI: A director of an intelligence agency has sent a notice to a mobile phone service provider for illegally acquiring his phone data. He has also requested the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to suspend the phone company’s license.

The notice declares that the client is an honourable, law abiding and tax paying citizen who is also a customer. It says that the company has to follow the required legal process and as a service provider, the company is also responsible for ensuring the privacy of the data of its customers.

It goes on to state that mobile phone service providers are also not allowed to forward customers’ data to any other customer either. “Even if someone needs to get such information, there is a process in which the court needs to be taken into confidence,” it said.



The notice alleges that the mobile phone company did not act in accordance with the Fair Trial Act, 2013, wherein the punishment is clearly stated as a fine of Rs10 million and five years of imprisonment. The notice demands that the service providers pay a fine of Rs20 million in damages.