WARSAW. His parliamentary group is working on a bill Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party.which will greatly enhance the possibilities electronic monitoring of citizens law enforcement, even providing access to suspects’ emails and social media posts.

In 2021, the Polish authorities accepted 1.82 million requests to monitor telephone conversations and electronic data. Among other things, the bill provides for the storage of e-mail messages on the servers of postal companies. Mobile operators will be obliged, by order of the prosecutor, to transfer data about the author of the message, his e-mail address and the content of the message. The legislation will also allow authorities to access encrypted messaging apps such as whatsapp and Messenger.

The bill was heavily criticized by the opposition. “A tracking app Pegasus apparently she did not work as she should, or rather she worked as she should, but those in power were forced to part with her. For this reason, they seek to continue, this time under legislative cover, the work of mass surveillance of the Poles,” said Arkadiusz Naperalski, a deputy from the center-left Union of Citizens. It was discovered that many party MPs were victims of surveillance of the Pegasus software.

The opposition points out that the bill would grant unprecedented privileges to the President’s Office of Electronic Communications, which would have the ability to block phone calls and Internet access for those deemed a threat to national security. “He will be able to block all our means of communication, even during the election period,” Naperalski said.

“The ruling party would like to have direct access to citizens’ messages. However, it all depends on the company that manages the data and its headquarters. Simply put: I do not think that the owner of Twitter will give in to such a request from the Polish authorities,” says network expert Wojciech Klicki.