4/10/26, 12:33 PM Myanmar Customers Sue Telecoms Giant Telenor for Sharing Private Data of Dissidents with Military Rulers - Open Society Justice Initiative PRESS RELEASE Myanmar Customers Sue Telecoms Giant Telenor for Sharing Private Data of Dissidents with Military Rulers DATE April 08, 2026 CONTACT Communications media@opensocietyfoundations.org OSLO—Today, Swedish non-profit, Justice and Accountability Initiative (JAI) filed a civil class action suit against Telenor ASA before Asker and Bærum District Court in Norway, claiming damages on behalf of Myanmar customers whose data was shared with the military. The case is filed by the Norwegian law firm Simonsen Vogt Wiig and supported by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) as well as the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI). Sharing Sensitive Data with the Myanmar Military Telenor ASA is one of the world’s leading telecommunications companies, headquartered in Norway. The Norwegian state is the majority owner of Telenor, holding 54 percent of the shares. With several subsidiaries across the world, Telenor is a key player in the mobile phone service market in Europe and Asia. Telenor Myanmar Ltd, Telenor ASA’s wholly owned subsidiary, commenced operations in Myanmar in 2014 and served more than 18 million customers by 2021. Information Telenor gathered and stored about its customers included name, physical address, Facebook and bank accounts, e-wallets, IDnumbers, location data, and call logs. On February 1, 2021, the Myanmar military toppled the country’s democratically elected government. In the aftermath of the coup, a civil resistance movement was born. The military immediately started cracking down on these activists through widespread arbitrary arrests and detentions, extrajudicial killings, torture, and other forms of serious human rights violations. A civil war between the military junta and forces supporting the opposition continues to date. In July 2021, despite warnings by civil society organizations and legal action against this transfer, Telenor ASA sold its Myanmar subsidiary. With this transaction, all customer data and active surveillance technology that Telenor had installed were turned over to a military-linked company. Telenor ASA exited Myanmar in March 2022. https://www.justiceinitiative.org/newsroom/myanmar-customers-sue-telecoms-giant-telenor-for-sharing-private-data-of-dissidents-with-military-rulers 1/5