Government revives push to install a spying device on mobile phone networks to track your phone
Government revives push to install a spying device mobile phone networks to access customers’ data.
The Communications Authority has revived the push to install a spying device on mobile phone networks to detect counterfeits amid concerns it will give the regulator access to other customer data, including calls, messages, and financial transactions.
The Device Management Systems (DMS) implementation in 2018 was halted by court orders, and the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) is requesting that the court revoke those orders.
The regulator insists that the technology can only identify and record the unique identification number of mobile phones and assigned subscriber numbers, and denies that the DMS has the ability to access subscriber phone records, location, and mobile money transaction details.
Safaricom has expressed worry that the regulator would have access to additional customer information stored by the telecom providers as a result of the monitoring devices.
Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah obtained the orders blocking the installation of DMS, arguing that it would allow the regulator to snoop on private conversations and gain access to sensitive customer data.
In the appeal, the CA said it had no intention of snooping on customers’ information and that the monitoring devices would be used to crack down on illegal mobile devices operating in the market without infringing on consumers’ privacy.
“In the foregoing regard, it is not our submission that the DMS device does not and is not intended to infringe the right to privacy of subscribers, nor are there any proven less restrictive means of combating illegal devices,” Wambua Kilonzo, the lawyer for the CA, said.
The lawyer said the High Court was wrong in its decision as the DMS has no capability of infringing subscribers’ privacy.
“In any event, the right to privacy is not an absolute right, and combating illegal harmful devices would be a justifiable cause,” he said.
The CA argued the appeal as the deadline for SIM card registration, which was extended in April by six months, is fast approaching on October 15. The High Court declared the CA’s move unconstitutional, as it gave no assurance that it won’t be used by third parties to access private information.
The CA had in January 2017 written to Safaricom, Airtel, and Orange (Telkom) demanding that a contractor it had hired be allowed into the operators’ sites to install the snooping device, sparking public uproar.
Safaricom and Airtel are the top telcos by mobile subscriptions.
The telecoms market regulator had defended the move on grounds that it would help weed out counterfeit phones from the local market.
Okiya Omtatah questioned the CA’s intention, arguing that the regulator had not invited public participation as required by the law prior to implementing the system.
Safaricom, which was enjoined in the case as an interested party, revealed that it had raised queries on the privacy of the data that the device would collect as well as security arrangements with the regulator but none was resolved.
The High Court found that the CA has no mandate in combating use of counterfeit goods in the Kenyan market, noting that the law has assigned that role to the Anti-Counterfeit Agency.
The CA has switched off counterfeit mobiles in the past, but it says consumers are still exposed to such devices, hence the need for a better monitoring system. In the appeal, the regulator says it has the mandate to monitor compliance under the Kenya Information and Communications Act (KICA) and that the DMS was not a new policy but only meant to control the proliferation of illegal devices.
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