A Minister of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) proposed to invalidate the National Register of Mobile Phone Users (Panaut) on the grounds that it violates fundamental rights to privacy, privacy and protection of personal data.
This is Minister Norma Piña Hernández, who submitted a draft judgment declaring the entire regulatory system by which the Panaut was created unconstitutional, so that an “Impact Assessment on the Protection of Personal Data” would be required.
This includes the Decree on Amendments to the Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law, which was published on April 16, 2021 in the Official Gazette of the Federation, because if only the precepts that oblige mobile phone users to hand over their personal data are invalidated, “the rest of the regulatory system is no longer he understands, he loses his reason for being”, said the minister.
And the fact is that the Panaut system obliges mobile phone users to provide their name, address and other personal, sensitive data and private information without establishing a minimum protection mechanism or standards to prevent illegal access or misuse of their data, recalled Norma Piña.
If personal data is not recorded, the Federal Institute of Communications (IFT) has the ability to cancel the user's telephone line. This is being done in order, supposedly, to combat crimes related to extortion and kidnapping; however, Minister Piña Hernández argued that it is not a useful tool to curb crime.
It should be recalled that in June 2021, the SCJN admitted a constitutional dispute brought by the IFT against Panaut so that it would not allocate part of its budget to the realization of this register, and its installation and operation, as well as the campaigns for the dissemination of the program, were suspended until a new one resolution.
The foregoing is that, through the implementation of the Panaut, there is the possibility that there is a budgetary impact on the IFT that could jeopardize its constitutional autonomy. And it is that on May 26, 2021, the IFT filed a constitutional appeal against various provisions contained in the register to no have the budget to start the program registry.
It was in December 2020 that the Chamber of Deputies approved an amendment to the Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Act for the creation of a register of mobile users to link their biometric data (including CURP) with their contracted telephone line. At that time, the initiative was generally approved, with 390 votes in favour, 43 against and six abstentions.
In view of this, the Network for the Defense of Digital Rights (R3D) pointed out that the project constituted a serious risk to the privacy and security of citizens. And he recalled that this register is a “reissue of the failed National Registry of Telecommunications Users (RENAUT)”, which was created in 2008 and eliminated in 2011 due to the breach of its database.
The data included in this register include: the telephone line number; date and time of activation of the line purchased with the SIM card; full name of the user; nationality of the user; address of the line holder; official photo identification number, as well as the Unique Population Registration Key (CURP) of the user.
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