Good morning,

The focus of our discussion this week is on cybersecurity and trust.  We will seek to address privacy and data security issues.

Like many other Kenyans, we frequently register to use various online services provided by the government and businesses.  The registration process requires that we provide personal information including physical, postal address, telephone numbers, credit card numbers, etc.  The younger generation and the young-at-heart are readily sharing “personally identifiable information” including photos and events through social networking sites including facebook, youtube, myspace, flickr, twitter, etc. 

Personal information collected and made available in the public domain such as the electoral register, telephone directory can be combined with information for example from  supermarkets loyalty cards to create valuable market information  to  track individual preferences and purchase profiles.  This information may unfortunately be subject to abuse and theft.   Consequently, ‘trust’ in policies and the security measures that the government and businesses establish to protect user information is therefore an essential element for the success of e-transactions (both e-government and e-commerce)

• How can we create a cyber security culture in Kenya? What is the role of the educators, peers and parents in digital literacy with respect to privacy and security? 
• Does the current legal environment provide for the protection of privacy on the internet?  How can we establish a balance between security and right to privacy?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards

Mwende

References

1.     Protecting your Privacy on the Internet: http://privacy.gov.au/internet/internet_privacy/index.html#2

2.     Privacy Policies: http://www.facebook.com/policy.php?ref=pf, http://twitter.com/privacy

3.     Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights :http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml#a12

4.     Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada: Protecting Your Privacy on the Internet:  http://www.priv.gc.ca/fs-fi/02_05_d_13_e.cfm

5.     Privacy illustrations: http://www.priv.gc.ca/information/illustrations/index_e.cfm

6.     http://www.diplomacy.edu/ISL/IG/

Disclaimer: Views expressed here are the author’s own