CCK seeks free access to phone users’ information

The government will have unrestricted access to private or confidential information of users from telephone companies once new rules are published.

The new regulations will give telecommunications regulator — the Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) — unfettered access to information from the service providers even without a court order.

The rules, to be published in the Kenya Gazette, will compel those licensed in the telecoms sector to grant the regulator access to its systems, premises, facilities, files, records and other data to enable the authority to inspect them.

The rules are silent on the circumstances under which the CCK would want to access the systems or information. Critics have argued this may be abused by a rogue regulator.

The new set of rules are based on the Kenya Information and Communications Act and may impact negatively on the privacy of users of telecom services including the Internet and mobile phones.

Consumers Federation of Kenya boss Stephen Mutoro has urged Information Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i to halt the publication of the rules to allow for consultations with consumers and telecoms.

VIOLATES PRIVACY

The rules would violate privacy rights, he added. “What the CCK and the Cabinet Secretary are doing is to amend Article 31 of the Constitution,” he said. “It is laughable because no one can purport to amend the Constitution through an Act of Parliament.”

The CS should stop the process to enable more discussions on the matter with all the players”, Mr Mutoro said when contacted on telephone.

He called on CCK to follow the proper procedures that were already provided for within the law without resulting to new rules that will infringe on the privacy of Kenyans.

“CCK cannot purport to be a security agency and where such information is required, proper procedures like a court order should be followed. If there is no more dialogue on the matter, you can be sure yours truly will challenge such rules in court”, he said.

While the rules forbids the disclosure of information without the written consent of a subscriber, this is taken away by a subsequent clause obligating a licensee or an agent to disclose such information either for purposes of facilitating the performance of any statutory functions of the Commission, investigations of any criminal offence and for purposes of criminal and civil proceedings.

NEW REGULATIONS ON REQUIREMENTS

The regulations sets out how to register existing and new subscribers of telecommunication services from the requirements for such registration, the method, verification of the information provided to the registration process whose format will be prescribed by the CCK.

Once the regulations come into force, a subscriber will be held responsible for activities undertaken using a medium registered in his or her name unless they can prove they were not in control of the subscription medium at the time the activities were being carried.

The rules are however silent on mediums that are registered using forged documents. For instance the photo in an ID card can easily be changed in Nairobi’s underworld and used to register a Sim-card through an agent most of who are small and have no capacity to verify whether such a document is a fake or not.