[kictanet] As Facebook and Google collect more data on Africans, their governments will seek to exploit that — Quartz

[esther kamande]

The trend is worrying, shut downs are not new; they are just getting
sophisticated by the day owing to new technologies which get better by the
day.



Having worked in some parts of Northern Kenya a few years back.  I got to
experience this first hand where the connection had been disrupted as a way
of cutting off communication among warring villages. The intention is
usually justified as "for emergency/security purposes" but then again this
can also been used for political purposes. Secondly, this is never
documented and most times as I came to learn from the locals, it was the
norm for connection to go off during certain seasons. I further noted they
could not establish whether this was a deliberate shut down or just another
technical glitch as they couldn't tell the difference but the timings
raised eyebrows.

If indeed deliberate, It is also not clear from which government agency the
directive comes from which further raises eyebrows as such a move should be
made public for accountability purposes.



Governments have not been saints in the past and we should not expect this
to change overnight and I agree Ali, vigilance is key, hence the many
questions behind the recent move by CA on the DMS system. Having *“all
Mobile Operators connect to the DMS system”* a system that is run by a
third party opens up many questions especially the fact that this has been
done outside of the public eye and the details regarding the system have
served to raise more questions than offer comfort to users. Secondly, the
silence by Mobile Service Providers on the same raises more questions as
there seems to be some level of discomfort otherwise they would  be
defending the move already.



Fact is, the regulator calls the shots and mobile service providers must
comply therefore we can only expect so much from them. The way I see it,
our best shot at defending this space is in Africa is through through a
standardized system of laws that apply in all member states of the African
Union i.e pushing for ratification of the African Union Convention on Cyber
Security and Personal Data Protection in Africa and further pushing for
data protection laws locally like in Netherlands where even the
government needs a court order to take down a website.


Regards,

Esther Kamande

Advocate | Policy Analyst

Twitter: @enkamande





On Mon, Feb 20, 2017 at 5:33 AM, Ali Hussein via kictanet <
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

> Listers
>
> The trend towards less internet privacy is spreading the world over.
> Western Countries unfortunately have been at the forefront of this worrying
> trend. Africa is simply catching up. Does this mean that we in Africa
> should simply give up and let our governments across the continent borrow a
> dark leaf from their counterparts in Europe and the US (as a lister seemed
> to suggest last week)?
>
> Let us continue to be vigilant and if we are unable to stop them let us at
> least shine a light on those who will strive to limit our freedoms in the
> name of 'National Security'.
>
> https://qz.com/914708/as-facebook-and-google-collect-more-da
> ta-on-africans-their-governments-will-seek-to-exploit-that/
>
>
> *Ali Hussein*
> *Principal*
> *Hussein & Associates*
> +254 0713 601113
>
> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>
> Skype: abu-jomo
>
> LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
>
> "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a
> habit."  ~ Aristotle
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
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