Caracas Chronicles

The cyber-surveillance state is quickly coming together: El Estimulo is reporting that the Venezuelan Banking Regulatory Authority (Sudeban) ordered late September that all banks must hand over all the technical information regarding electronic transactions, including the IP addresses involved in any e-operation. Financial institutions must also reveal to Sudeban the identity of all parties involved.

Even if Sudeban has the legal mandate to do so, this measure seems to tighten the State’s grip over the entire financial system even further. In the written request, Sudeban sets out the creation of the AT-37 Transmission Archive, to which all banks must now send every electronic transactions made on a weekly basis, regardless of the sums involved. Banks have delivered  all data regarding operations of Bs. 10,000 or more since 2010.

In a radio interview, local digital expert Marianne Diaz said Sudeban’s latest action is “…part of the government’s crusade against the parallel rate by compiling absurd amounts of personal data…”. The decision violates privacy rights, as it doesn’t involve court warrants of any kind and basically throws the constitutional presumption of innocence under the bus. Not like that’s ever happened before.

An unnamed source told El Estimulo that this kind of information could be highly valuable to criminals. Sudeban says the information will be encrypted. How safe does that make you feel? After all, we’re in the same country where the infamous Tascón list (which made public the identities of who sign for the 2004 recall referendum) is freely sold by street vendors in the streets.