Dear Dorcas, Indeed. The ICT policy does not mention data protection as a key issue at all. The IC Bill 2006 only mention data protection at section 58,62 and 62 but then only making it an offence to "hack" into protected systems. Nothing about.....deliberate disclosures/ sale..etc of data...how long it should be kept etc. Australia has Data protection/Privacy laws on this see ( a bit old but a good summary) http://www.efa.org.au/Issues/Privacy/privacy.html Kenya will soon require to legislate on this. It may be that the FOI policy may only mention this obliquely as it would require that a separate Bill deals with this issue. Kihanya ----- Original Message ---- From: Dorcas Muthoni <dmuthoni@gmail.com> To: kihanyajn@yahoo.com Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 7:52:31 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 3: What Policies should inform the FOI? Hi Kihanya, Want to draw a poniter to a related matter as is being dealt in a different country. Please see the link below. http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid14_gci1242852,00.html?track=NL-102&ad=578130HOUSE&asrc=EM_NLN_994760&uid=5800974 Walu had mentioned something related: the protection of consumer data by private companies too. It is important that this is captured. Sorry, cannot find the actual mail on the thread but sure he can relate it. Muthoni On 2/14/07, John Walubengo <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote: Thanx Kihanya for your efforts. Indeed this is a fairly un-convential topic in that it has no obvious or immediate financial connotations - hence the slower responses... But back to my contribution. I think the policy informing the Freedom Of Information bill should look towards empowering the citizens through facilitating their access to knowledge/information. We need to think through how our collective data regarding our heritage, history, social and economic transactions can be harnessed and made to serve the common good. I know this bill has tended to create controversy because it has often been looked at in the narrow terms of the Govt vs the Media i.e. Media seeks info visa-vis Govt sits on Info. True, this could be one of the issues but it should not limit our scope because the bill should be a reflection of broader policy issues that touch on different data sitting on various platforms such as (Private) Media Broadcasters, Mobile service providers, ISPs, eBankers, etc. How for example can KTN be asked to share (or sell) their valuable film clips to the Kenya Archives dept? How can the East African Standard avail their 100years+ data to the public? When or Why should Safaricom/Celtel divulge the SMS transcript of a certain subscriber to the Police, to the Media or the Private Investigator? What kind of data security standards and practices should we place for critical and national data stores such as KRA, KPA, Immigration, etc? What of the Certification Authority (CA) providers that are likely to play a cenral role in a future eCommerce environment, how will they collect, protect and avail their data? So I think these are some of the Policy issues that need to be thrashed out in the process of coming up with the final FOI bill. walu. --- joseph kihanya <kihanyajn@yahoo.com> wrote:
Dear All,
I trust we may now move on to day 3. Those with comments still on day 1 and 2 can still do so. The themes were...
Day 1: Why Freedom of Information (FOI) Act? Day 2: What are the current modalities for accessing data held by Data Handlers (Govt or Private Sector)?
Today's topic really looks as to waht should be the basic reasoning behind the FOI policy and hence law.
The principles listed hereunder have been recognized by Article 19 ( an international organizatioin dealing with freedomm of te press and related issues) as what should guide the FOI laws(policy).
PRINCIPLE 1. Maximum disclosure
That the law should seek this as its underpinning philosophy.
PRINCIPLE 2. Obligation to publish
That there should be an obligation to publish and requests should be for non-crucial/ essential / bulky information.
PRINCIPLE 3. Promotion of open government
That the law should promote / recognise the importance of open government.
PRINCIPLE 4. Limited scope of exceptions
That the exceptions should be clear , precise and allowable in a democratic society/ i,e should not take away what the law seeks to grant.
PRINCIPLE 5. Processes to facilitate access
Clear processes for request should exist.
PRINCIPLE 6. Costs
These should be kept at a minimum for the public has already paid for the creation of the information through taxation.
PRINCIPLE 7. Open meetings
Other than informnation, there should bea promotion of open dialogue at decsion making level.
PRINCIPLE 8. Disclosure takes precedence
The tests that are to be applied by the commssioner and the appeal tribunal should seek disclosre unless the exceptions and the public interest demand otherwise.
PRINCIPLE 9. Protection for whistleblowers
That those who disclose information that is in the public interest, inspite of the exceptions should not be victimised/ should be protected.
Lets go!
Kihanya
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