Câmara de Lisboa authorized the sending of SMS with warnings about the storm Leslie, without authorization of the Data Protection for such. Civil protection is only allowed to send messages in case of maximum fire risk, but the guardianship now admits to extend warnings to other disasters.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MAI) will consider broadening the sending of messages to other situations of catastrophe, in addition to the fires. Currently, the National Civil Protection Authority (ANPC) is only authorized by the National Commission for Data Protection (CNPD) to alert people by SMS in the event of a forest fire threat.

Asked by PÚBLICO, MAI affirms that with the end of the critical period of fires, which the Government had extended to this Monday , October 15, “the balance of the various measures of prevention and firefighting introduced this year” will be examined.  At that time, it will be studied “the possibility of extending the dissemination of warning messages to the populations to other situations of civil protection”.

This weekend, with the worsening weather conditions caused by the storm  Leslie, which caused massive damage in the centre of the country, the city’s council, through the Municipal Parking Company of Lisbon (EMEL), decided to  send an SMS to citizens  with recommendations, on behalf of the municipal Civil Protection – which lacked authorisation from the CNPD.