Emails and phone calls will be under surveillance in Algeria

Emails and phone calls will be under surveillance by authorities as the President of the Republic issued a decree fixing the composition and the organization of the National Organization for the Prevention against Cyber Crimes.

The Organization will be in charge of assisting judicial authorities to prevent terror crimes by collecting, recording and keeping digital data.

According to the decree, the organization will keep watch on “any correspondence, received signs, writings, images or any electronic means including fixed phone and mobile.”

The organization is an independent administrative authority controlled by the interior and communication ministers as well as the National Gendarmerie commander, the national police chief, a representative of the national defence ministry and two judges from the Higher Court.

Its members will include officers, judicial police agents and gendarmes. Their number will be fixed upon joint decisions made by justice, defence and interior ministers.

The decree stressed the necessity of not using collected information for other reasons than the prevention against technology-related crimes.

Its employees should keep the “professional secret” and have to take an oath before the Judicial Council.

The State will protect them from threats, pressure or any humiliation due to the nature of their work.