Day 3: Personal Data Protection
Dear Dr. Matiangi and Listers, Please find the comments by DotConnectAfrica on the entire Draft African Union Convention on the establishment of a Credible Legal Framework for Cyber Security in Africa. DotConnectAfrica took initiative, analyzed and published these comments to the draft convention over a month ago in October 2013 and circulated it to interested stakeholders. We appreciate the multistakeholder efforts in preparing this convention and look forward to work with everyone in this worthy course. Link to our comments: 1. http://dotafrica.blogspot.com/2013/10/dotconnectafrica-comments-to-draft.htm... 2. http://www.dotconnectafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/DotConnectAfrica-... *Article II – 2:* With respect to personal data, state prerogatives must be well defined so as not to breach the rights of a private life online or offline. All activities that arise from the gathering, processing, transmission, storage and use of personal data should be well defined and levels of acceptable access and permissions by individual users properly laid out so as not to create a door for perceived surveillance or activities that take away the personal right of a user *Article II-6, II-7, 11-8, II-11, II-12, II-13 refer to a Protection Authority* Comment 12: These articles define the membership and the constituting mandates of the said ‘Protection authority’ however it should be left to the countries to define the authorities under inbuilt country contributions/laws or bylaws so as not to create a different center of power or parallel agency. Also the selection of the membership to the protection authority should allow composition from all stakeholders and not only government. ‘Sworn Agents’ should be well defined and described, their mode of selection, duties, responsibilities should be open to public accountability and transparency. Regards DotConnectAfrica Trust.
Message: 1 Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2013 02:34:09 +0000 From: Fred Matiangi <fredmatiangi@gmail.com> To: Grace Githaiga <ggithaiga@hotmail.com> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 3: Personal Data Protection Message-ID: < CAHqF9HaFpZiNfA8OqedHxn7BN1C0bdzSrXZCo+MbT9TEdR2NKA@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
Good morning Listers,
I have been following the on-going discussion of the proposed AU convention with keen interest and excitement, especially because this is precisely how we will end up enriching and strengthening it. I pumped into John Walubengo last evening and proposed that perhaps in a week or two we should have a brief brainstorm bringing together all interested parties so we can concretise our 'Kenya Position' on this convention. Further to this conversation, I asked my colleagues Victor and Eunice at the ICTA and Francis Wangusi at CCK to explore possibilities of collating all the ideas emanating from this forum and setting up a sit down to tie up our discussions a head of the Heads of State Summit in January.
Grace- I very sincerely appreciate the initiative to drive this discussion and look forward to further engagement.
Good day.
Fred
On Tue, Nov 26, 2013 at 9:23 PM, Grace Githaiga <ggithaiga@hotmail.com
wrote:
*Good morning Listers*
*Today, we move onto PART II: PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION and will tackle four questions.*
*Objectives of this Convention with respect to personal data*
*Article II ? 2:*
*Each Member State of the African Union shall put in place a legal framework with a view to establishing a mechanism to combat breaches of private life likely to arise from the gathering, processing, transmission, storage and use of personal data.*
*The mechanism so established shall ensure that any data processing, in whatsoever form, respects the freedoms and fundamental rights of physical persons while recognizing the prerogatives of the State, the rights of local communities and the target for which the businesses were established.*
*Question:* *What is the relevance of this article? What are these state prerogatives? And given the increased interest of state surveillance, how can states balance respect of FOE while recognising state prerogatives? *
*Article II-6, II-7, 11-8, II-11, II-12, II-13 refer to a Protection Authority* which is meant to establish standards for data protection. Article II ? 14 *provides for each Member State of the African Union to establish an authority with responsibility to protect personal data. It* *shall be an independent administrative authority with the task of ensuring that the processing of personal data is conducted in accordance with domestic legislations.*
Further, article II-17 states that ?*Sworn agents may be invited to participate in audit missions in accordance with extant provisions in Member States of the African Union?.*
*Question:* *Considering that this article seems to be tied to the Protection Authority, what is its relevance? And who is a ?sworn agent?? What should this authority look like in terms of its composition? *
*Article II ? 20:*
*?Members of the protection authority shall not receive instructions from any authority in the exercise of their functions. *
*Article II ? 21:*
*Member States are engaged to provide the national protection authority human, technical and financial resources necessary to accomplish their mission.*
*Question:* *It appears that this Data Protection Authority is envisaged to be fully government supported. Therefore, should we be talking of its independence? In what way should this article be framed so that it ensures independence of the Authority?*
*Article II ? 28 to II-34 *outlines six principles governing the processing of personal data namely:
Consent and of legitimacy,
Honesty,
Objective, relevance and conservation of processed personal data,
Accuracy,
Transparency and
Confidentiality and security of personal data.
Under each of the specific principles, detailed explanation of how each should be undertaken is offered.
*Question:* *Is this explanation and detailing of how to undertake each necessary in an international (regional) law necessary or needed? Is this legislation overkill?*
*Lets get your views on data protection concerns.*
Rgds
GG
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