[kictanet] Need to regulate trans-border data flow

[McTim]

All,

On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 1:52 PM, Ngũgĩ Kĩmani <ngugi at mafundi.co.ke> wrote:
> As Kenya becomes more and more ICT-dependent, and personally identifiable
> information becomes more and more public, I think it is time we took
> seriously the importance to regulate trans-border data flow.

How exactly do you propose to do this?

 Bodies like the
> UN take the flow of their employees information between countries very
> seriously in this time of border-less ICT communication.

information doesn't flow between countries, bitstreams travel from
machine A to machine B.  They may be located in different nation
states, but that is largely irrelevant. a body like the UN is going to
use the same security protocol for both machine, and if they are
"serious" about confidentiality, encrypt the data in transit.


 We as Kenyans also
> need to ensure our citizens' information remains here in Kenya as much as
> possible,

This particular horse has long since left the barn.


and the first step towards that would be to have our own locally
> hosted ICT services similar to the likes of Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter etc.


And the Kenyans who use FB, tweet, Google, etc now? would you propose
that all those online services must follow Kenyan law in terms of data
protection and privacy?

>
> Guess what the impact of exposing such information would be in the long run,
> should the 'people' in possession of that information decide to make
> destructive use of it.

Kenyan "people" using this data in a "destructive" way would, I
suggest be far more detrimental to an individuals privacy than a
non-kenyans "destructive" use of it.

-- 
Cheers,

McTim
"A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A
route indicates how we get there."  Jon Postel