This document of instructions defines technical requirements for authorized monitoring of some specific telecommunications and provides a list of duties for telecommunication operators, which are obligated to act according to the Constitution Law of Republic of Serbia as well as elements of it.

According to element 55 (Law of Telecommunications), subpart 3, these Instructions were issued by RATEL in cooperation with public telecommunication operators and the governmental body responsible for immediate conduct of electronic monitoring.

This means implementation of massive tracking and archiving in all forms of electronic communications for the purposes of the national agency for the security.

Internet Service Providers (ISP) are obligated to enable governmental bodies to access updated databases with personal data on users, contracts, maximum speed of data transfer, identification addresses as well as access to database about email users. ISPs are also obligated to provide hardware and software for passive monitoring in real time, collecting and analysing Internet activities, statistics, interception of email, attachments, web mail, IP video traffic, phone traffic, interception of IM traffic, peer-to-peer networks, service of email and forwarding the email content towards the center of governmental bodies for supervision. Technical requirements (hardware and software) should enable reconstruction of traffic interception up to the level of application and filtering within these criteria: username, user phone number, email address, IP address, MAC address, IM identification.

All those technical requirements are active and they will be used if there is request or need of the governmental bodies or police to monitor in cases of serious security violation or crime act. This Instruction does not define the privacy of the data as violation of the citizens' privacy (in telecommunication terms it is forbidden). The privacy is protected by the Law of Telecommunication, as well as by the Serbian Constitution.

Similar cyber laws and technical instructions already exist in other countries. Formally, at least, it's good to have such regulation on one side where privacy is protected – formally, but, on the other hand, I am wondering if the Republican Agency for Telecommunications in Serbia, national security and ISP will (or will not) violate and abuse privacy of citizens in the internet community in practice.

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Here are some of the reactions in the Serbian blogosphere, as well as possible solutions for protecting your privacy on the Web.

Tamburix, in a blog post titled “Big brother is watching, monitoring and recording you” (SRP), contemplates the invasion of privacy and compares it to Big Brother:

The latest technical requirements of the Republican Agency for Telecommunications and installation of the equipment for internet networks in Serbia, brings elements of Big Brother where the state has permission to get and use all the information regarding our online presence.

Milan posts a link to the document, saying (SRP) that there is also some positive aspects in this document:

I don't know what to think about this. It can be a good thing… great thing, to finally put a law in action on Serbian Internet. On the other hand, the possibilities of misuse are there. If someone misuses it, then it's really bad. Censorship, espionage, call it whatever you want.

Rehash blog writes (SRP):

[…] I read a lot of negative comments on this document, with which I fully agree. I can't say that I didn't expect this to come at some point. Regulations in the USA, in some countries of the EU and the UK are restricting their citizens with similar practices. Will our protests solve this problem? I'm almost sure they won't. For quite some time, our citizens have been apathetic, and they'll tolerate whatever repression methods our pseudo-democratic government is using (in the first year of my studies, professors told me that democracy doesn't exist). […] Fine, lots of bloggers, geeks, or users of the Internet will write and protest for some time. After this, silence will come again. And what to do then?

Vesic Tehnology blog comments (SRP) on the new instructions:

Balkan Spy*, the RATEL/BIA way
It is almost impossible how some “agencies” (read: BIA and similar) through their puppet organizations (read: RATEL) try to put in use the most terrifying “technical” documents, which have only one purpose: to get complete control over your e-life.

Constitution? Law? Justice?

We'll get there probably when we make independent agencies from “independent” agencies, and when justice system and police start doing their job, and when politicians […] start thinking of “irrelevant” things, like the well-being of those who have put them where they are now.

You still think that the most important news is the Karadzic's arrest? Think again. He's one person, and we're getting here the whole Balkan spy over all of us.

*Author's note: there is a movie named “Balkan Spy”.

Jazzva, a computer science student, critically comments on this (SRP):

Maybe the instruction defines “random user” in order not to get in the situation where only data on some users is being kept. And the Constitution defines the access to that data, so someone can get them only by the warrant issued by the Court, or in the case of violated security of Republic of Serbia.

Personalmag blog writes (SRP) about Serbia as a country of Big Brother:

What was probably expected in the totalitarian regimes is happening to us today, paradoxically in the time of “democratic” and pro-European government. RATEL, a government body for regulations of telecommunications, […] by issuing some technical document, innocently named “Technical requirements for subsystems, devices, hardware and installation of Internet networks” […] is bringing a totalitarian monitoring of all electronic communications by “responsible government body.

Two interesting comments on this post:

It is totally out of mind, and so expected. I knew something like this would happen, and that it would be put into use, as you said, on the small door. I'll start to crypt my thoughts, not just e-mails. This needs a reaction! It is intolerable and violation of basic human rights.

Another comment:

This is a catastrophe. The commenter who said it's the same as in Western countries - it is, but only when there is a court-issued warrant [to monitor]. Over there, the providers would be the first to react if they had to forward traffic and mails on their own expenses. And how do they think to get VoIP traffic, which is crypted, like Skype? Do they [responsible government body] expect from provider to decrypt it and provide it to them on a silver plate? We also need to protest to international organizations that protect freedom of speech and freedom of the Internet.

Sasa Bodiroza, a student of Computer Science at the University of Belgrade, writes on his blog:

Serbia’s Republic Agency for Telecommunications (RATEL), has passed a new law regulation (text in Serbian) on Internet traffic interception and redirection. Basically, it allows Serbian government to read each and every bit of our communication, including HTTP, VoIP, e-mail and IM protocol. It’s not that I have something to hide; it’s just that it’s a serious violation of my privacy. And I don’t really like that.

Update: I think I overreacted a bit in my comment. This legal act is not supposed to talk about violation of privacy. Violation of privacy is forbidden by the Serbian Telecommunication Law, and the Serbian Constitution. The whole purpose of this legal act, as I see it, is to amend article 55. of Telecommunication Law.

And he further on suggests how to protect your privacy:

Since we can’t change the law immediately, the least we can do is to protect our privacy. We can use encryption methods to encrypt our communication. Here are few advices.

Aleksandar Urosevic finishes his blog post (SRP) in a humorous manner, using irony:

From Urke's cookbook: tomorrow, you too, my dear readers, will know which toilet paper I prefer, and which finger I use to pluck my nose. Why should the government be the only privileged to this crucial information about me, I know that “the people should know”!

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A question to Global Voices readers: What are the regulations in your country and do you feel like being watched/monitored?

Serbia is the country in transition, and right now there is a great chance for its scientific community to jump into the ICT world science highway by implementing new technologies into its scientific and educational systems. One of the main postulates of this year's workshop in Belgrade at FP 7/ICT Work Programme on science in society was that technology is worth nothing without users, content and interaction. If Serbia wants to become part of e-Europe, many things must be changed, beginning locally and then on a much broader scale.

But some representatives of Serbian educational and science institutions don't seem to care too much about information literacy and information sharing, as well as developing new information technology tools – which, ironically, happen to be open software applications and platforms that do not cost anything. One of the professors at Belgrade Open School (BOS) has described the situation in the region as not good: the educational system is neither valued enough, nor evaluated.

Blogs would have been a great medium for interaction, publishing, communication and collaboration in science, a good place for showcasing Serbian scientific achievement, which has been in the shade lately. In Serbia, however, there is only one institutional science blog – the blog of KoBSON, the Serbian Consortium of Coordinated Library Acquisition hosted and maintained by the Center for Scientific Information at the National Library of Serbia.

Besides being one and only in Serbia - and despite providing the Serbian scientific community with examples of various uses of blogs in science, education, teaching, research, networking, popularization of science and online activism - the KoBSON blog may soon disappear altogether.

Bora Zivkovic, a science blogger and the founder of the Science Blogging Initiative, reports on the problem at ScienceBlogs.com:

Do Serbian scientists need a blog of their own?

Not that it costs anything to have one…

Yet, the Konsortium of science libraries in Serbia is seriously contemplating shutting down their KOBSON blog, an invaluable tool in science communication in the region.

Danica, who the regular readers of this blog are quite familiar with as she is the Number One Champion for Open Science and Web 2.0 science in Serbia, has put a lot of effort into building the online infrastructure for Serbian scientific communication, including the KOBSON blog and the KOBSON wiki, as well as teaching and preaching to the local scientific community about the importance of catching up with the world after a decade of isolation and fully embracing the modern communication tools.”

Below is some of what other bloggers write about the value of the KoBSON blog and science blogging in general.

Journalist and blogger Ljubisa Bojic comments in Serbian version of the post at KoBSON. He believes that blogs are a necessary tool in education, at universities as well as in the scientific community, because they help to “[exchange] ideas between scientists”:

I use the KOBSON services from time to time and I think that frequent users should as well make their own blogs. Therefore, it is not only you [addressing KoBSON], but also the university professors and students who feel that your internet page is their own home and who have the need to share their views and to talk about their own research.

A colleague from Croatia, Filologanoga, who is also blogger in education and science area, thinks that communication and interaction are very important factors:

It is necessary for Institutions who are dealing with acquisition, keeping and sharing the information to have communication with their users. The only problem is that for this kind of communication two sides are necessary, at least, according to my experience, and in science this process sometimes doesn’t go very well.

Tanja, who is researching the areas of virtual communication and blogs, writes:

Excellent discussion… I think that we do not have developed audience for understanding such issues, still. […] And, of course, it's not just the science blogs that we need :)

Solana wrote this, in English:

The more science blogging the better! Knowledge should be open to all.

What is to be done about the situation?

Bora Zivkovic suggests direct action and interaction:

There is not much more that Danica alone can do in the present situation to save the KOBSON blog, but perhaps YOU all can help. How? Let's demonstrate the power of Science 2.0 by direct example! Go to the KOBSON blog and explain the importance of such a tool in the comments of this post. Even better, if you are fluent in one or another variant of the Serbo-Croatian language, post a comment on the Serbian version of the post. Then, post a link and this plea to your own blog as well and ask your readers to do the same.