In Egypt, eavesdropping severely punishable by law

CAIRO –1 January 2019: The Egyptian law criminalizes activities including violation of an individual’s private life without their permission, and sentences the violator to prison in case he is proven guilty.

Lawyer Mohammed al-Sayed said that wiretapping, recording calls and photography without permission expose the person to punishment and that violating private life is a crime punishable by law.

Taking photos of a person in a private place, transmitting a conversation in a private place or overhearing a telephone conversation without permission may lead to a prison sentence of up to a year, according to Egypt’s penal code (309 bis, 309 bis A).

Moreover, an individual convicted of blackmailing someone by threatening to release their private conversation may face a prison sentence of up to 5 years.

If a public employee eavesdrop, capture, record, or transfer the video of someone without his or her knowledge, in violation of the law, they will be punished by a prison sentence of 3 to 15 years, Sayed said.

Moreover, if the accused is a journalist, article 21 of the Press Law should be added to the indictment and the violator should be punished by the most severe punishment in accordance with article 32 of the Penal Code, Sayed added.

The law also criminalizes the use of modern technology to commit such violations against an individual’s will, and orders the confiscation of the equipment used, and the subsequent deletion or destruction of recordings.

Personal data protection

In August, Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat announced the Cabinet’s approval of a draft law aiming to protect personal data.
According to official reports, the law protects citizens’ “fully or partially electronically treated personal data.”

In a press statement following the meeting, Talaat said that the law prohibits gathering or processing individuals’ personal data or spreading them by any means without the permission of the concerned individuals, except in cases authorized legally.

Talaat affirmed the country’s keenness to attract international and regional investments in the field of database centers and to establish legally protected data centers.