Poland proposes new intelligence access to international telecom traffic

A new government draft to amend the Electronic Communications Law in Poland aims to grant the Foreign Intelligence Agency (AW) and the Military Intelligence Service (SWW) access to international telecommunications traffic passing through the country.

According to the proposal, telecommunications operators will be required to provide the necessary technical and organizational conditions to facilitate this access. The government states that these expanded powers are intended to help identify external cyber threats, terrorism, and sabotage. The scope includes traffic where either the sender or the recipient is located outside of Poland.

Legal experts have raised questions regarding the lack of specific limits on the volume of data accessible, the criteria for selecting specific networks or transmission routes, and the absence of a detailed definition for selectors. There is also a noted lack of distinction between communication content and metadata in the current draft.