Why governments are snooping on you

Virtually everything we do is tethered to an online platform.

The internet has become our playground; a space that has transformed many aspects of our economic, social and cultural lives.

Good or bad, our online footprints are recorded and archived.

Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo and other online media platforms hold more information about you than any other entity in the world, including the government.

INVESTIGATIONS

If the government wants that information, it just needs to write to these organisations and show reason why it needs it.

In some cases, these tech companies comply to the requests.

The requests may be either to hand over the information or archive it for use in investigations.

The tech firms could also be asked to pull down accounts for security reasons.

USER CONTENT
Governments are getting increasingly cagey about their citizens’ online activities and have employed tech-savvy surveillance staff to keep tabs on social media content.

Some people are on their watch lists.

A new report by the Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (Cipesa) — a UK Department for International Development funded organisation — shows that at the end of last year, 18 African countries, Kenya included, requested Google to remove certain user content from their online platform.

Facebook and Twitter have also received requests from Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Sudan and Egypt.

SURVEILLANCE
In Africa, Nigeria leads in the number of requests made to Facebook to either remove or hand-over information on some accounts.

Other countries leading in online surveillance are Tunisia and Egypt.

Governments make these requests for various reasons, including fraud, cybercrime and libel.

Facebook retains records of individuals under active criminal investigations for 90 days after which it deletes the data.

BLOGGERS
In Kenya, it is not uncommon for bloggers and other people engaging in online communication deemed menacing to State operations to be apprehended by law enforcement agencies.

The challenge to governments around the world is the pace at which technology is evolving.

According to the Cipesa report, over the past three years, Kenya topped African countries in the number of user account information requested to Google.

Last year, Kenya made 21 requests relating to 32 user accounts.

South African and Nigeria followed with 16 and five user accounts.

PRIVACY
Google only fully complied with Nigeria’s request.

What’s particularly interesting is that Google is seeing more requests for user data worldwide but is responding to a decreasing percentage of them.

America tops the countries sending requests to Goggle and other online media companies.

Online tech companies have to balance between keeping their clients’ data private and secure, and complying with national and international laws.

COMMUNICATION
According to its own transparency report, Google says that government agencies, courts and parties in civil litigation regularly ask technology and communications companies for information on one’s user history.

Google reviews the request to make sure it satisfies legal requirements and the firm’s policies.

Google does not inform a user that their data is wanted by their government as that could compromise the probe.

Besides the user information, Google can share details on the user’s location and known devices.

SHUT DOWN

Some governments are notorious for shutting down the internet when they want to curtail online interactions.

For example, in 2015, Freedom House — an independent watchdog dedicated to expansion of freedom and democracy — reported that governments in 15 countries had temporarily shut down access to the internet or mobile phone networks.

The writer is an informatics specialist. [email protected]. @samwambugu2