Amendment on surveillance in Poland

The president of Poland, Andrzej Duda, signed an amendment regarding surveillance. The signed amendment was disapproved of by the opposition as well as the National Council of the Judiciary, Polish Bar Council, Digitization Council, National Council of Legal Advisers and NGOs.

Please remember that the amendment is a judgement of Constitutional Tribunal which deemed as unconstitutional some of the rules specified in the act concerning special services collecting such data as: telecommunication, postal, internet, and carrying out operational surveillance.

The amendment was to repair the prevailing law but according to specialists this goes too far. Operational surveillance is to consist in:

1. Audio surveillance
2. Video surveillance in places other than public
3. Inspection of any correspondence, including packages
4. Acquiring data from any electronic storage devices

The entire surveillance period may not be longer than 18 months (with the exception of counterintelligence).

According to NGOs, the amendment allows special services to track people using GPS transmitters. In public places this did not require court consent. According to the organizations, the services would also be able to use specialist espionage software the aim of which would be to access telecommunications data devices.

The provision that received the most criticism is about online data that may be used to check who and what does on a given computer (visited websites, online searches or e-mail addresses, etc.) Up until now the services had to file requests to online and telecommunication companies in order to verify a given person based on a prior consent from court.

If the amendment did not come into force on 7 February 2016, the services would not have access to many activities. On 6 February 2016 a judgement of Constitutional Tribunal of July 2014 comes into force and from then on the disputed provisions cease to apply.