December 2018 - KICTANet

As Facebook Raised a Privacy Wall, It Carved an Opening for Tech Giants
by Victor Kapiyo 20 Dec '18

20 Dec '18

Data is the new oil... For years, Facebook gave some of the world’s largest technology companies more intrusive access to users’ personal data than it has disclosed, effectively exempting those business partners from its usual privacy rules, according to internal records and interviews. The special arrangements are detailed in hundreds of pages of Facebook documents obtained by The New York Times. The records, generated in 2017 by the company’s internal system for tracking partnerships, provide the most complete picture yet of the social network’s data-sharing practices. They also underscore how personal data has become the most prized commodity of the digital age, traded on a vast scale by some of the most powerful companies in Silicon Valley and beyond. Read more https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/technology/facebook-privacy.html *Victor Kapiyo* Partner | *Lawmark Partners LLP* *Suite No. 8, Centro House, Westlands, Nairobi | **Web: www.lawmark.co.ke <http://www.lawmark.co.ke> * ==================================================== *“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude” Zig Ziglar*

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Emoji Domains Could Be The Next Internet Gold Rush
by Nelson Kwaje 18 Dec '18

18 Dec '18

Something new or too much hype https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGn1VjdxQ9k Nelson Kwaje Team Lead, Tech and Innovation Unit WEB4ALL LTD www.web4all.co.ke Tel : +254711250795 Skype : nelson kwaje Twitter : @nelsonkwaje Building ICT Solutions That Matter

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[CofekDigest] #9: Please Sign Petition Against Toyota Kenya Deceptively Modifying Vehicle Chassis
by Consumers Federation of Kenya (Cofek) 18 Dec '18

18 Dec '18

Beloved Consumer, Please sign this petition against Toyota for deceptively modifying a 28-seater and passing it off as a 33-seater chassis https://www.change.org/p/akio-toyoda-toyota-co-jp-help-stop-toyota-kenya-dec eptively-modifying-vehicle-chassis What the Cofek forum on competition, dominance and telcos forum will address http://www.cofek.co.ke/index.php/news-and-media/2271-what-the-cofek-forum-on -competition-dominance-and-telcos-forum-will-address New currency images face fresh opposition in High Court dispute http://www.cofek.co.ke/index.php/news-and-media/2266-new-currency-images-fac e-fresh-opposition-in-high-court-dispute Its official. Johnson's Baby Powder is carcinogenic. Never use it on your loved one! http://www.cofek.co.ke/index.php/news-and-media/2260-its-official-johnson-ba by-powder-is-carcinogenic-never-use-it-on-your-lived-one Subscribe to Cofek Breaking News, Send 'Cofek On' to 40408. You can also become a Cofek Member! Kind regards, Pjorn Muriuki PROGRAM OFFICER Consumers Federation of Kenya (Cofek) Rehema Place, Block F Suite 45 P.O Box 28053-00200, City Square Tel. +2540202615496, 3861718 Mobile: 0715555550, 0733180008 Email : <mailto:hotline@cofek.co.ke> hotline(a)cofek.co.ke Web : <http://www.cofek.co.ke/> www.cofek.co.ke COFEK - Restoring Consumer Confidence and Pride _______________________________________________ CofekDigest mailing list CofekDigest(a)lists.cofek.co.ke http://mail.cofek.co.ke/mailman/listinfo/cofekdigest_cofek.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at %(user_optionsurl)s

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It's time to take back your data from Google and Facebook's server farms | Giri Sreenivas
by David Indeje 12 Dec '18

12 Dec '18

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/12/its-time-to-take-back…

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Expression of Interest - AfriNIC board
by Walubengo J 12 Dec '18

12 Dec '18

Listers, In case you are interested apply. https://afrinic.net/call-for-expressions-of-interest-for-board-appointments walu.

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Pwani Innovation Week Think Piece
by Simeon Oriko 11 Dec '18

11 Dec '18

* Dear Listers, Some of you may be aware that the inaugural Pwani Innovation Week <http://pwaniinnovationweek.co.ke> was held last week at Swahilipot Hub. I’d like to share with you a Think Piece - an analysis of the discussions we had at the event: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bnRAVuG7Y1HQMqkDcIXriofwanQPnYjDtUcicuk… free to use the comment feature to share additional thoughts or insights you may have. For convenience, I’m also attaching a PDF version of the document to this email. I’d also like to share photos of the event: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jV8jGGnGDG_L0VKD1Eqtp61mWrX6nm5s?us… These are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/>(CC BY) license. We look forward to your involvement in developing the innovation ecosystem in the Pwani region. Kind Regards, Simeon Oriko Board Member - Swahilipot Hub Chairman - Pwani Innovation Week Steering Committee *

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M-Pesa is a critical resource that should never fail
by Barrack Otieno 11 Dec '18

11 Dec '18

Listers In Summary M-Pesa has grown from an option to literally being a must-have financial service for millions of Kenyans. It has also become integrated in the lifestyles of Kenyans in terms of paying for anything, ranging from groceries to school fees and even bribes. With over 25 million mobile money subscribers, the platform's going down translates into the economy slowing down. The regulator must require additional and external information security checks to provide assurance that the potential risks and threats have been identified and mitigated. The regulator should also demand that Safaricom facilitate business continuity for its subscribers rather than telling them to be patient until services are restored. https://mobile.nation.co.ke/blogs/1949942-4889230-6roifmz/index.html It would be interesting to know what is in the mind of listers. Best Regards -- Barrack O. Otieno +254721325277 +254733206359 Skype: barrack.otieno PGP ID: 0x2611D86A

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How Safaricom lost its way
by Mwendwa Kivuva 11 Dec '18

11 Dec '18

It was evening of 7th December 2018. Consumers had challenges using mpesa from around 6.40pm. I tried paying for a product, but did not get a response for around 40 minutes. Then, I got this SMS: "M-PESA is not able to process your request. Go to M-PESA>My account>Update menu>M-PESA PIN>Send. Then try again." Then this "MPESA is experiencing delays, and is not able to accept your request. Please wait for 10 minutes before trying again." Then finally after an hour, reality hit home: "MPESA is currently unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience caused." At this point, people were stranded in weird places. Car owners were stranded at petrol stations having ordered full tank hoping to pay with the often reliable MPESA. They had to park their car as they sought alternative ways to settle their bills. Revelers at the many entertainment joints had extended hours trying to pay their bills. Patients at hospitals were turned away. Queues and queues of Shoppers at supermarkets left their full baskets at tills. Online platforms were not spared either. The shopping carts were abandoned. I was stranded like the rest, and finally managed to pay with the mpesa at 8.08pm. See, I was determined. I had consumed products, and I did not have any alternative way to pay. That is how successful Safaricom has managed to make Mpesa part of our lives. At around 9.24pm, Safaricom sent this SMS "M-PESA is undergoing scheduled maintenance." Of course that downtime was not a scheduled maintenance. So now a respected company with a top notch communications team had resorted to small lies that add no value to their brand. Desperate times truly calls for desperate measures. An unexpected downtime is not the same as scheduled maintenance. Scheduled maintenance is communicated early in advance to all parties. This was not the case with this particular scenario. Back to my payment, I manged to sneak in the payment in the midst of the "scheduled maintenance". But the deductions of my mpesa balance were completely off. I informed the establishment. They investigate from their system (which is just mpesa SMSes from their feature phone), and them too had got one message indicating my payment. My previous balance did not add up when the current purchase is included. It was way less. The mpesa statement could also not reconcile where the difference of my balance had gone. It only showed one transaction. So for example, if I had a balance of Ksh20,000, and make a purchase of Ksh5,000, the balance should be Ksh15,000. But now my balance read Ksh10,000. Today is Tuesday, 11th December, and I'm yet to be united with my funds. It's good the CS Hon Mucheru has asked for a systems audit of the mpesa platform. In the audit, they should capture how many transactions were eronouse, and where users' balances disappeared to. It may be mischievous individuals carting our balances the NHIF and KPC way.

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Why Kenya's Konza technocity failed to take off
by Barrack Otieno 11 Dec '18

11 Dec '18

Listers In Summary - Five years later, it appears the Konza dream, one of the Vision 2030 projects that would give Kenya a Silicon Savannah to match the Silicon Valley in the United States, is a case of stunted growth. - The only visible sign of progress at the site is an unfinished eight-storey building. - Among global conglomerates that expressed interest in the project included Google, Huawei, Toyota, Shapoorji Pallonji Group from India, and Telemax Technology Corporation from Taiwan. For further reading : https://www.nation.co.ke/business/Why-Kenya-Konza-technocity-is-dead-in-the… Regards -- Barrack O. Otieno +254721325277 +254733206359 Skype: barrack.otieno PGP ID: 0x2611D86A

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Tweet from DCI KENYA (@DCI_Kenya)
by Timothy- Coach- Oriedo 10 Dec '18

10 Dec '18

DCI KENYA (@DCI_Kenya) tweeted at 6:23 pm on Fri, Nov 16, 2018: #ARRESTED|Detectives from the Serious Crime Unit have Today afternoon arrested four young men who created a website similar to Uwezo Fund and using the name of the @FirstLadyKenya, defrauded applicants millions of shillings after they sent an application fee for loan processing. https://t.co/5GBi6ZkxPV (https://twitter.com/DCI_Kenya/status/1063452464446353408?s=03) Get the official Twitter app at https://twitter.com/download?s=13

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