Belarus providers will be required to keep record of users’ browsing history for a year since the day they are provided Internet services starting January 1, 2016.
The corresponding decree of February 18 was published by the Belarus Ministry of Communications and Informatization on March 14 on the National Legal Internet Portal, telegraf.by reports.
Providers will store information about the pages that users visit, as well as information about the contract for telecommunication services, the name and address of the user.
They will also keep the data about the date, connections start and end time, internal and external IP-address, domain name or IP-address of the visited sites on the network, the amount of data sent and received.
What dies this mean for ordinary Belarusians? First of all, the authorities are now able to freely determine their interests and preferences, by24.org reports.
For example, law enforcement officers will definitely become interested in the citizens visiting sites with information on the production and sale of drugs, resources for instructions on bomb-making, forums on exchange of child pornography or websites of opposition political parties and independent media. Browsing history of your home computer or mobile device will allow the appropriate body to easily and quickly create lists of all potentially unreliable citizens.
Online anonymity tools such as anonymizer sites, proxy servers, VPN and TOR network were recently banned in Belarus.
belsat.eu/en/, telegraf.by, by24.org
