NauruCommunications and Broadcasting Act 2018, confidentiality of subscriber information and communications
Communications and Broadcasting Act 2018 (No. 21 of 2018), ss. 48-49, 70-71
A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.
What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.
In force since 10 May 2018.
A comprehensive regime rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 19 September 2026.
What it requires
- As a licensed communications service provider, do not disclose information concerning a subscriber without the subscriber's written consent, unless the Act or another written law requires or authorises the disclosure.
- Let a subscriber require you to correct or remove information relating to them, and handle any complaint about how you responded to that request.
- Retain a subscriber's information only for billing purposes, and for no longer than 7 years.
- Take reasonable steps to maintain the confidentiality of a subscriber's communications, and do not intercept, monitor, alter, or modify their content except as permitted or required by law.
- If the Chief Regulator directs you to under section 49(4), monitor communications to a subscriber's connections to trace a harassing, offensive, or illegal call, to the extent your current technology allows.
- Keep all communications and other information you receive from a subscriber confidential at all times, and do not intentionally intercept, use, or disclose them unless you are Authority staff, the service provider, or its employee, agent, or contractor lawfully acting in the course of duty.
- Do not intentionally modify or interfere with the contents of a communication sent over a communications network, unless doing so in the proper course of your duties with lawful excuse.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Two separate offences carry this penalty. Under section 70(2), a person other than the Authority's staff, a service provider, or its employee, agent, or contractor acting lawfully in the course of duty who intentionally intercepts, uses, or discloses a subscriber's communications or information commits an offence. Under section 71, a staff member of the Authority, a service provider, or its employee, agent, or contractor who intentionally and without lawful excuse modifies or interferes with the contents of a communication outside the proper course of their duties also commits an offence. Both are punishable on conviction by a fine not exceeding $10,000 or imprisonment not exceeding 2 years, or both.
Penalty structure
Fine only under s. 70(2) or s. 71; either subsection also allows imprisonment not exceeding 2 years instead of or in addition to the fine.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- 19 September 2026
- Currency
- AUD
- Fixed cap
- 10,000
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Nauru Communications Authority
What it reaches
Obligation class
Consent, Data subject rights, Retention, Security, Disclosure
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Section 48(1) bars a service provider from disclosing information concerning a subscriber without the subscriber's written consent unless the Act or another written law requires or authorises the disclosure. Section 48(2) gives a subscriber the right to require a service provider to correct or remove information relating to them, with a right under section 48(3) to complain to the Nauru Communications Authority if the provider fails or declines to act.
Section 48(4) limits retention of a subscriber's information to billing purposes only, for no more than seven years. Section 49(1) requires a service provider to take all reasonable steps to maintain the confidentiality of subscriber communications, and section 49(2) bars it from intercepting, monitoring, altering, or modifying their content except as permitted or required by law.
Section 49(3) lets a subscriber ask the Chief Regulator to direct a service provider to monitor communications to the subscriber's own connections for tracing a harassing, offensive, or illegal call, and section 49(4) lets the Chief Regulator issue that direction. Section 70(1) extends the confidentiality duty to all communications and other information received from a subscriber, binding the Authority's staff and a service provider's employees and agents alongside the provider itself.
Section 70(2) makes it an offence for anyone outside that group acting lawfully in the course of duty to intentionally intercept, use, or disclose a subscriber's communications or information, punishable by a fine not exceeding $10,000 or imprisonment not exceeding two years, or both.
Section 71 separately makes it an offence, carrying the same penalty, for a staff member, service provider, or its employee, agent, or contractor to intentionally and without lawful excuse modify or interfere with the contents of a communication sent over a communications network, outside the proper course of their duties. These duties bind only a licensed communications service provider's handling of its own subscribers, not personal data generally.
When LexLint raises it
provides_telecom_services
Read the law
Official text of the Communications and Broadcasting Act 2018 (No. 21 of 2018)
Republic of Nauru, in an Internet Archive capture of the RONLAW database's PDF
archived copy
Read from a public archive copy, not the publisher directly. The publisher does not serve this page to automated readers, so a direct fetch was not an option here; how we access sources. Archived September 14, 2024. Publisher's page: http://ronlaw.gov.nr/nauru_lpms/files/acts/7fdfb6b20bbb42e23f5bb8daf48aa363.pdfEvery line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.