November 2018 - KICTANet

Telkom asks for a review of rivalry
by Ali Hussein 26 Nov '18

26 Nov '18

Listers Here we go again. Whilst I have issues with some practices of Safaricom PLC, I’m an avowed defender of a judicial mix of regulatory oversight and free market principles. A number of issues demanded by Telcos and other players are already in motion. 1. Access to Agents. That’s already happening in a big way. Safaricom PLC doesn’t have a monopoly on this anymore, and I’m not sure they ever had. 2. Mobile Money Interoperability is now a reality. Time will tell how this works out. 3. Number portability has been with us for years now. So I ask, what else do these players want? https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6472694728822439936 Ali Hussein Principal AHK & 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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Data Security
by Peter Wakaba 21 Nov '18

21 Nov '18

Dear Lister, Apologies for cross posting. I am looking for someone who can articulate internet and data security issues in Swahili? Please reach out. -- *Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up, it knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a gazelle or a lion. When the sun comes up, you better start running. - In "The World is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman.*

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Data Privacy Thoughts/Challenges
by S.M. Muraya 21 Nov '18

21 Nov '18

While the EU focuses more on regulation, the USA is much better in growing businesses. Maybe we can learn from US reservations (not just EU regulations :) http://fortune.com/2018/10/23/california-data-privacy-law-gdpr/ California’s New Data Privacy Law Could Begin a Regulatory Disaster By DANNY ALLAN | October 23, 2018 When the European Union adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2016, many in the technology industry saw it as just the first of many such data privacy laws to come. They were right. And, as a result, we may be on the brink of a convoluted regulatory disaster. In June, California became the first U.S. state to pass its own data privacy law, the California Consumer Privacy Act. When it goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2020, the act will provide the state’s 40 million residents with rights similar to those granted to European citizens through the GDPR. The hastily approved act gives all California residents the right to see what personal information is being collected by businesses and to request that this data be deleted. They will also be able to discover whether organizations are selling their information to third parties, such as advertisers, and to request those organizations stop doing so. It will be the most comprehensive data privacy law in the country. That said, while the GDPR was criticized for being too ambiguous, it looks downright hyper-specific in comparison to the California law. For example, thanks to some loose categorization of businesses to which the act applies, it has the potential to include not just organizations that sell individuals’ data for financial gain, but also websites that collect IP addresses from millions of unique visitors per day. In 2017 alone, over 1.9 billion files were leaked through security breaches. After the California Consumer Privacy Act comes into force, organizations mishandling data could be fined up to $7,500 for each violation. The financial impact to businesses could be enormous—and that doesn’t even take into account the soft costs associated with loss of customer and employee confidence and damage to brand reputation. Data privacy regulation in America is about to become seriously confusing. Since the GDPR came into effect, only some states have expanded their data protection regulations to include breach notification requirements. And state laws governing data breaches vary significantly: Texas imposes civil fines of up to $50,000 per violation, while Georgia imposes no penalty at all. It’s likely that other states will soon pass their own data privacy legislation. Just over half the public (51%) thinks technology companies should be regulated more than they are now, according to a June 2018 report from the Pew Research Center. As security breaches and privacy concerns continue to make headlines, public awareness of and demand for stronger data protection practices are likely to increase. If each state takes on a local approach to data privacy, America will become a patchwork quilt of regulation, making it an extremely challenging place to do business. Imagine having to ensure that datasets with personal information on millions of people comply not just with the GDPR, but also with 50 different and sometimes contradictory policies? As people move from one state to another, presumably the rules regulating their data would also change. How can organizations possibly keep track? This is the stuff CIO nightmares are made of. What we need is common set of rules for everyone, ideally similar to the GDPR’s, which U.S. organizations doing business in the EU are already following. This would minimize the regulatory burden while also providing U.S. citizens with substantial control over their personal information. A discussion draft of a new proposed House law, the Data Acquisition and Technology Accountability and Security Act, would create federal standards for breach notification that would preempt state laws. However, the bill is too focused on notifying customers of data theft, failing to provide them with the more comprehensive rights they need to adequately control their personal data. It will need to be strengthened significantly to meet the privacy demands of U.S. citizens. In any case, Washington needs to act soon. Otherwise, the U.S. may end up with a regulatory scheme that makes GDPR compliance look like a walk in the park. Danny Allan is the vice president of product strategy at Veeam.

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Community Connectivity: Huawei-RuralStar
by WANGARI KABIRU 20 Nov '18

20 Nov '18

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#Trending - Facebook caught sponsoring fake news to discredit critics
by Patrick A. M. Maina 16 Nov '18

16 Nov '18

ICYMI: Tech bombshell of the year (link below). According to the trending NYT article, it looks like Facebook has been caught knowingly weaponizing fake news to try muzzle (by smearing/discrediting) people raising concerns about the proliferation of fake news on its platform and/or to divert meaningful discourse on the topic away from Facebook. Apparently the M.O. even included pandering to racist / white supremacist / hate media channels and narratives? Ok, this stuff only happens in movies. Please say it ain't so fb... Incredibly ironic development, but completely vindicates the growing concerns worldwide about the growing dangers of platform concentration, unregulated market power and unregulated PR/media muscle in giant multinationals. It will be interesting to see whether (and how) the US gov will discipline its misbehaving, but financially lucrative babies. Here's the link... https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/16/podcasts/the-daily/facebook-zuckerberg-s… Rgds,Patrick.

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Java - what's changing
by Bernard Kioko 16 Nov '18

16 Nov '18

This feels scary.... [image: image.png] -- <https://bernardkioko.com?promo=email_sig&utm_source=product&utm_medium=emai…> Bernard Kioko bernardkioko.com <https://bernardkioko.com?promo=email_sig&utm_source=product&utm_medium=emai…>

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Mobile Operators Sim Toolkit
by Bernard Kioko 15 Nov '18

15 Nov '18

What has been the justification for Kenyan mobile Operators to not open sim toolkit to third party developers and integrators?

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Balancing the #PublicTransport Equation in #Kenya
by Mbugua Njihia 15 Nov '18

15 Nov '18

Here we are again, a declaration given by government leading to yet another crackdown on public service vehicle operatives, the predictable script leads to a revolt by the operators, a disenfranchised commuter base of the walking nation, culminating in a closed door meeting of representatives and finally handshakes that restore service. Rinse repeat on all these good intentions. - http://www.mbuguanjihia.com/business/balancing-the-public-transport-equatio… *Regards,* Mbugua Njihia ᐧ

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Student Success Framework
by wairimu R 15 Nov '18

15 Nov '18

Hello Came along this article & was wondering if Kenyan HEI,s can borrow from it https://www.derby.ac.uk/online/news/university-derby-first-country-sign-adv… Regards Rose On Thursday, November 15, 2018, Bernard Kioko via kictanet < kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: > What has been the justification for Kenyan mobile Operators to not open > sim toolkit to third party developers and integrators? -- Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all - Aristotle

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Cheap AI coding labour?
by Wainaina Mungai 15 Nov '18

15 Nov '18

Some developers are raising concerns privately that great initiatives such as Zindi are "cheaply buying AI code" from Africa https://zindi.africa/faq/data_scientists According to them, "Zindi runs high-value expertise programming competitions/ hackathons in Kenya and Nigeria... and demands code in exchange for low pay prizes. It is unfairly low-cost labour for them." See attached. Are their concerns valid?

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