The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has charged against the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI) and the mobile phone companies for the decision of the first to file an action of unconstitutionality before the Supreme Court to prevent the creation of the controversial National Register of Mobile Telephone Users.
During his morning press conference, López Obrador has criticized INAI for defending these companies. "These telephone companies, which have a lot of power, which act with a lot of hypocrisy, because for the hiring of a telephone service they already request that data," he said. "As they also have a lot of money to buy or rent information media, they bring a campaign against us, and the autonomous bodies and judges," said the Mexican president.
To contract a mobile line in Mexico it is not necessary to provide any personal information, unless it is a postpaid line (through a contract with the owner), in which only a copy of the official identification and a proof of address.
In the case of prepaid lines (under the recharge scheme), the delivery of any type of identification is not required.
And it is these types of connections that are most abundant.
According to data from the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT), 83.4% of the country's mobile lines operate under this scheme.
An expensive registry for companies and the Government
The creation of a large database with the biometric records of Mexicans would entail a high cost for the participants. According to data provided by the National Telecommunications Association of Mexico (Anatel), the cost for mobile operators would amount to 21,000 million pesos (just over 1,000 million dollars).
According to the approved reform, the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) has six months to prepare the guidelines for the creation of this registry, with an additional expense. "To start the roll, the IFT requires more than 100 million pesos, a millionaire investment if one takes into account that the legislators who approved the reform have also taken away their budget," says Jorge Bravo, president of the Mexican Association, in an interview. of Right to Information (Amedi).
The distribution of mobile phone chips and equipment is very diverse among phone companies. Telcel, owned by América Móvil, which concentrates more than half of the users in the country, has around 40,000 authorized points of sale, while the American AT&T has around 10,000 authorized distributors and Telefónica around 6,000. "There is a universe of chip sales," says Michel Hernández Tafoya, CEO of Observatel, a specialized telecommunications organization. "Today there are sales in grocery stores and other small establishments in towns where large companies that are not accounted for do not arrive," says Hernández.
In addition to the investment that telephone companies have to make to capture the biometric data of the more than 120 million users in the country, the IFT would have to make an investment to protect the data. "It is necessary to have security protocols to prevent data from being filtered or falling into the hands of cybercriminals," says the president of Amedi.
But time is running against users.
Although on Tuesday the INAI unanimously approved the filing of an unconstitutionality action before the Supreme Court, the IFT has six months to prepare the guidelines to start the roll, plus the time it takes for the court to debate and give a resolution.
"It will depend on the pressure made by users and digital rights protection organizations so that it is resolved as soon as possible," says Hernández Tafoya.
EL PAÍS consulted the three main telephone companies in Mexico, but they declined to comment.
83.4% of mobile lines in Mexico operate under the prepaid scheme.
Galo Cañas / CUARTOSCURO
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