Social organizations presented before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) an Amicus Curiae letter against the National Register of Mobile Telephony Users (Panaut)considering that its creation constitutes an interference with the right to privacy and protection of personal data, as well as violations of access to information and communication technologies, among others.
The Network in Defense of Digital Human Rights (R3D), Article 19 and other organizations asked the Supreme Court to make public the draft resolutions of the unconstitutionality actions 82/2021 and its accumulated 86/2021, and of the constitutional controversy 71/2021 promoted by the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI)by various senators who are members of the LXIV Legislature and by the Federal Telecommunications Instituterespectively, demanding the invalidity of the decree by which the Panaut was created.
This is so that they are published sufficiently in advance of their discussion by the Plenary, and so that the arguments presented in the Amicus Curiae are considered in a timely manner.
The organizations warn that the Panaut is unconstitutional, since it fails to comply with the requirement of legality by failing to carry out an impact assessment on privacy. It also fails to comply with the requirement of legality and the principle of reserve of law by delegating to an administrative authority the definition of substantive aspects such as the definition of biometric data that will be collected and stored in a mandatory manner.
The norm that gave life to the Panaut maintains that the IFT and the telephone dealers They must collect personal information from users, which ranges from their mobile phone number, full name, nationality, official identification number with photograph or CURP of the owner of the line, as well as biometric data of the user and proof of address.
Otherwise, it is established that users will not be able to access the mobile phone service or even the cancellation, without the right to reactivate, of said service.
The Amicus Curiae adds that the Panaut also fails to meet the suitability requirement by not contributing in any way to public security given the absence of evidence that identity requirements for the acquisition and use of SIM cards contribute to the reduction of crime rates and given that there are Multiple ways crime can circumvent the Panaut.
Likewise, it is noted that it fails to comply with the requirement of strict proportionality insofar as they constitute severe and potentially irreversible interference in the right to privacy and protection of personal data that are not justified in the face of the non-existent or negligible benefits for the achievement of the intended purpose. .
“The process of collecting and storing centralized and massive data implies a high and permanent risk of violation, which is further aggravated with respect to biometric data, which, when referring to immutable and inseparable physical and physiological characteristics of people , imply that in case of the violation of this data, people could lead to serious consequences in a permanent and irreversible way”, said the organizations.