The South African Law Commission (a body that makes suggestions to
the central goverment about changes in legislation) has released
a discussion paper on interception and monitoring of electronic
communications.
Parts of the proposed legislation are reminiscent of the worst parts of
the US FBI-sponsored Digital Telephony legistation a few years ago:
* Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, no person ... may
provide [any telecommunications service] which is not capable and
does not have the capacity to be monitored
* any person ... rendering a telecommunications service shall at own
cost ... acquire ... facilities ... to enable the monitoring of
conversations and communications ...
* the investment ... and operating costs in enabling a
telecommunications service to be capable of being mionitored, shall
be carried by the person ... rendering such a service
* duplicate signals ... shall be routed by the relevant person ... to
the central monitoring centre, to be designated by ... [the police],
[the military], [the National Intelligence Agency], [the South
African Secret Service].
Whether Internet service providers are "telecommunication service
providers" in terms of relevant legislation is not entirely clear.
See the South African Law Commission web page at
<URL:http://www.law.wits.ac.za/salc/salc.html>, and follow the links to
* Project 105
Review of Security Legislation
Discussion Paper 78
The Interception and Monitoring Prohibition Act 127 of 1992
(November 1998)
or go directly to
<URL:http://www.law.wits.ac.za/salc/discussn/monitoring.pdf> for the
paper in PDF format.
--apb (Alan Barrett)
