YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian parliament passed at first reading the government-authored bill on allowing authorities to use mobile location data of citizens to trace direct contacts of confirmed novel coronavirus cases.

The bill passed with 57 votes in favor, 27 against and 1 present.

The mechanism does not foresee any surveillance on the content of calls or messages, according to the authors.

The mechanism will be introduced only during pandemic-related state of emergencies and all collected data will be deleted afterwards.

The ruling My Step faction said it has some recommendations to the government ahead of the second reading.

The opposition parties strongly disapproved the bill and voted against.

Arman Babajanyan, an independent lawmaker, also voted against, citing “very serious reservations and disagreements” of the Human Rights Defender, with whom he has discussed the issue.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan