VPNs with servers in Algeria

Under art. 11 a provider must keep, according to the nature and type of its services and for one year from recording, the data identifying users and their terminal equipment, the technical characteristics, date, time and duration of each communication, and the recipients and addresses of sites visited.

Art. 10 obliges providers to help investigators collect or record content in real time, make the art. 11 data available and keep those operations confidential. Under art. 11, where failure to keep the data obstructs an investigation, an individual faces six months to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of DA 50,000 to 500,000; companies are fined under the Penal Code. Whether a VPN operator is a service provider under art. 2(d) is not established.

Art. 12 of the same law requires internet access providers to remove, store or make inaccessible content they give access to once they learn, directly or indirectly, that it breaches the law. They must also put in place technical means to limit access to distributors carrying material contrary to public order or morality, and tell their subscribers.

Law 20-06 of 28 April 2020 inserted art. 196 bis into the Penal Code. It punishes anyone who wilfully spreads false or slanderous information or news to the public by any means, in a manner likely to undermine public security or order, with one to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of DA 100,000 to 300,000, doubled for a repeat offence. The same amendment raised the penalties for contempt under art. 144.

Providers must make the records they keep under art. 11 available to the authorities conducting judicial investigations (art. 10).

Law 09-04 permits electronic surveillance, real-time recording of content and searches of computer systems to protect public order or for current judicial inquiries (art. 3). Art. 4 limits it to terrorism and subversion, state security, a probable attack on a computer system threatening public order, national defence, state institutions or the national economy, investigations where results cannot otherwise be reached, and mutual legal assistance; it requires written authorisation from the competent judicial authority.

For the first case the authorisation comes from the Prosecutor General at the Court of Algiers, for six months, renewable, on a report naming the technical means and their aims. The order of the rows is the security score, and a server’s location is not a recommendation.