The bill concerning the retention of data generated or processed by hard line, mobile telephony and internet providers was passed into law Tuesday with 197 to 18 votes and 13 abstentions.
The bill had been rejected by the Senate in December 2011, but the Chamber of Deputies has the final say.
The “Big Brother” law obligates hard line, mobile telephony and internet providers to store all clients’ traffic data for six months and make them available to authorities in matters of national security in a move to prevent, probe and track severe crimes.
Telephony and internet providers are obliged to provide the requested data within 48 hours from the authorities’ request and, if this is not possible within the 48-hour interval, the respective data shall be provided within five days at most.
Early May, Romania’s EU Affairs Minister Leonard Orban said the country risks fines of more than EUR30,000 per day unless it adopts the data retention law over which the EU has opened infringement procedures.
Providers are not allowed to store clients’ conversations, as phone tapping falls under the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code.