Dangerous data: Telenor’s irresponsible exit from Myanmar may put customers’ lives at risk

Norway’s Telenor selling its Myanmar arm to Lebanese M1 Group, which has cooperated with regimes in Sudan and Syria

Data of 18 million people, including call-data records, part of sale five months after military coup; means possibility of detention, torture, murder

4-MIN READ4-MIN

The daughter of a protester who died in March 2021 during a demonstration against Myanmar’s military coup, cries during her father’s funeral. There is concern that the sale of the Myanmar branch of Norway telecoms firm Telenor could lead to potentially dangerous call data relating to millions of people being seen by the junta. Photo: AFP

Lucy PurdonandPatrick Phongsathorn

Published: 10:00am, 9 Dec 2021

When Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor Group announced the sale of its Myanmar operations to Lebanese investment firm M1 Group in July, the people of Myanmar were five months into nationwide protests and strikes opposing the February 1 coup, which threatened to plunge the country back to the dark days of military rule.

Data relating to Telenor Myanmar’s 18 million customers forms part of that sale. And in the wrong hands, that data could mean life or death for the company’s former clients.

A protester in Myanmar holds a poster with an image of detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a candlelight vigil in March 2021 to honour those who have died during demonstrations against the military coup. On December 6 the junta jailed Suu Kyi for four years for incitement and breaching Covid-19 rules, a spokesman said, the first of several possible convictions that could jail the Nobel laureate for decades. Photo: AFP

The background

Telenor entered the Myanmar market in 2013, one of four telecoms companies after the country opened up to foreign investment. Telenor quickly became the ‘network of choice’ for activists due to the company’s strong stance on human rights.

But the coup presented dilemma after dilemma as the human rights situation deteriorated. The junta arbitrarily arrested more than 10,000 people, murdered more than 1,300 women, men, and children, and ramped up invasive surveillance of civilians while demanding telecoms companies activate call-intercept equipment on their networks. In Telenor’s case this would violate 2018 EU sanctions.

The sale

In May 2021 Telenor Group wrote a whopping US$700 million off the value of Telenor Myanmar, selling it for US$105 million without meaningful consultation with customers or civil society organisations inside the country. On its website the Group says that the “deterioration of the situation and recent developments in Myanmar form the basis for the decision to divest the company. In the present situation it has not been possible for Telenor to conduct an ordinary sales process”.