Although the news did not receive much coverage at the time it was published, the truth is that since July 12, Ecuador has joined the group of countries such as China, North Korea, Cuba and Iran that maintain some kind of obsession with controlling what their citizens publish or read on the Internet; which is generating reactions on social networks in the country.
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| One of the protest images circulating on social media in Ecuador |
The subject is thanks to resolution TTEL-477-16-CONATEL-2012 of Conatel that was issued on July 11, 2012, which in article 29, numeral 9, mentions verbatim: «Telecommunications and value-added service providers must submit, at the request of the Telecommunications Superintendency, information regarding IP addresses assigned to their subscribers/clients-users, within the timeframes, terms and conditions established by said entity for this purpose.
In other words, from that date on, and without a court order (as was necessary until then), the National Telecommunications Council (Conatel) will be able to access the identity of users (through the IP address) once it has issued the new Regulations for Subscribers/Clients-Users of telecommunications and Value Added services.
An IP address is a unique and unrepeatable identifier that the Internet service provider gives to each of its clients. These IP addresses are recorded on a computer every time a user writes a comment on Twitter, Facebook, a newspaper or any other digital media on the Internet.
That is, every time someone visits a website or posts a comment on the Internet (either under their own name or under a pseudonym), their IP address is recorded and their privacy is maintained. However, whoever obtains a list of their name and IP address will be able to easily track and monitor (with the appropriate software) their Internet activities, including their comments on certain sites they access.
Some of the questions that arise in the face of this "intrusion into privacy" are: Why does the state require this information? Who guarantees that this data will be kept safe? Who guarantees that thousands or millions of IP addresses with customer data (name, ID, phone number, etc.) will not be disclosed, stolen or misused?
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