Convergencia Research, Consultoría especializada en Latinoamérica y Caribe
Wednesday, June 03, 2020

Protection of personal data in Internet providers in Paraguay

The Electronic Frontier Foundation carried out, together with the local NGO Tidec, the report "Who defends your data", which highlights preservation standards of private information of each company. Tigo obtained the best results, exceeding 50% satisfaction, while the state-owned Copaco and Vox showed the worst performance.

The concern about the right to privacy exists in the telecommunications sector, but it is still difficult for operators to translate it into technical legal terms. This is demonstrated by the report "Who defends your data", prepared by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, creator of the study "Who Has Your Back?", Which served as a model for the aforementioned, together with the NGO Tidec of Paraguay.

For the survey, seven indicators of privacy practices and policies of each ISP were used: privacy policies; judicial authorization; user notification; policies for the promotion and defense of human rights; transparency; guides for personal information requirements; and accessibility. From this calculated a percentage considering the total number of criteria met by each ISP in relation to 22 criteria addressed in a survey of each company.

Of the approximately 120 ISPs in Paraguay, the five largest were evaluated, with more than 15,000 clients: Claro, Copaco, Personal, Tigo and Vox. The state-owned Copaco obtained a resounding 0% in the general average and Vox was very close to it, with a 4.5% global score. The best performance, 54.5% satisfaction, corresponded to Tigo. Claro registered 36.4% and Personal, 18.2%.

In a talk with Convergencialatina, Maricarmen Sequera, co-founder of Tedic and lawyer specialized in Internet privacy, lamented the results of Copaco and Vox and attributed them to "negligence in the public sector, lack of knowledge and also political will."

The survey was carried out last year and had had a previous edition in 2017, so it allowed evaluating the evolution in data protection practices. Although there were no significant changes in ISP scores, the incorporation of privacy notices was detected in the case of two of the aforementioned actors. “The most interesting thing that we obtained from the feedback regarding 2017 was the modification in some aspects of the request for information by judicial authorization. It was a slow exercise, but operators managed that, upon request for metadata from the penal system, they could deliver information by court order and not via the prosecutor. This used to make a lot of noise for companies with branches in other countries, where they already worked in this way,” Sequera confided.

Regarding the expectations of improvement of privacy aspects, the co-founder of Tedic emphasized that in the legal teams of operators, personnel specialized in human law should be added, since corporate law generally prevails. "Everyone is concerned about the right to privacy, but they do not know how to translate it into technical legal terms," he concluded.

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