EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Legislation, Markets and Companies, Technology, Telecomunications

The amendments have been introduced in view of the growing terrorist threat in the world and the events of recent months, there also being an increased probability of encountering a disaster or a disaster threat that involves danger to an individual’s life or health in European countries where large numbers of Latvian nationals are staying on a regular basis.

In emergency, it can be vital to rapidly track down and notify large numbers of Latvian nationals on how to receive assistance. The Foreign Ministry has concluded that for this purpose it would be necessary to send out text messages to all the phone numbers of Latvian mobile operators roaming in a specific foreign country at a given moment.

It is noteworthy that the said amendments only provide for the mobile operators’ rights to process the location data. No information on personal data, location data, the number of Latvian nationals in a crisis affected region or country, or the number of text messages sent out will be disclosed to the Foreign Ministry.

For the Foreign Ministry, sending of text messages is an instrument to be used only in exceptional cases under emergency conditions. Such a decision will be made when threat to the lives and health of Latvian nationals is detected, with no possibility to receive comprehensible or sufficient information from local authorities that could help Latvian nationals to return to Latvia.