This is an interesting one. I personally have no problem with the regulations and policies being put in place to protect the citizens. But we should reach a balance on what we can do, and how to execute it, ensuring the right to privacy is maintained. Just trying to analyse some of the conditions: "Failure by any establishment to adhere to the rules will compel Kenic to withdraw the Wi-Fi services used by the defaulting institutions." So will private WIFI need to be licensed? I have a private WIFI at the office where all my visitors can access the internet as they wait to be served. Does this mean if I don't adhere to the policy (or is it a law?), my private WIFI will be shut down? Although registering these devices would help them track regular users, are they considering all the savvy users and even criminals who can hide their identity, change mac addresses, use proxy servers e.t.c. to continue accessing the service as thy desire? A serious hacker will never be tracked by registering their devices. Is this directive enforceable? When you loose your phone and go to the police or service providers, the hurdles you go through just forces you to abandon your quest, forget and move on. Local hosting: Last time we heard that it was a requirement to host all content locally, somebody claimed to have been misquoted. It seems to have comeup again. "The new rules will also require all Kenyan companies to host their websites in the country rather than outside. This would help avoid extra costs associated with sending data out to a different location and back again to the website owner" While I am all for local hosting and local content, I don't think this is an area that needs legislation. The policy should probably read "government institutions" rather than "Kenyan companies". How would they even enforce this? Well, I may be a local company, but my clientele may be in Australia. Example, a curio shop owner. A more interesting policy in the offing related to the same news "CA said it is also working on a memorandum of understanding with the registrar of companies that will also see anyone registering a company or business in Kenya compelled to acquire a dot ke (.ke) domain address." So a local company cannot opt to have a .com or a .africa? Is there precedence on the same anywhere else in the world? http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/CA-rule-to-require-registration-for-use-o... Lets see how all this turns out. ______________________ Mwendwa Kivuva, Nairobi, Kenya "There are some men who lift the age they inhabit, till all men walk on higher ground in that lifetime." - Maxwell Anderson On 1 July 2015 at 10:12, cdohnio via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke

wrote:

This is the one of the most ridiculous things I've heard suggested, this government has proven that they know nothing about cyber security. These are the same people who wanted to implement deep packet inspection in the name of security. We have a constitutionally granted right to privacy and I for one will fight to keep it so

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