Tracking devices on phones will open up Kenyans to mass surveillance, Global human rights warns
Installing tracking devices; Device Management Systems (DMS) on mobile phones will open up Kenyans to mass surveillance.
The installation of monitoring devices on mobile phone networks, according to a global human rights organization, will expose Kenyans to widespread surveillance.
According to Article 19, installing Device Management Systems (DMS) will subject the populace to indiscriminate monitoring, according to an appeal currently before the Supreme Court.
The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) is requesting that the court dismiss petitions that seek to halt the implementation of DMS because they are worried that this will provide the telecommunications watchdog access to further user information, such as calls, texts, and financial transactions.
According to the human rights organization, mass surveillance is any system that gathers and collects data on individuals without attempting to restrict the dataset to clearly specified targeted individuals.
“Surveillance opens a Pandora’s Box to a number of other human rights violations such as profiling. It is therefore clear that the DMS limits the right to privacy in a manner inconsistent with Article 24 of the Constitution,” Article 19 says in court papers.
After the Court of Appeal granted the CA permission to install the device on the condition that the public be included in the process, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) went to the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling.
According to the LSK, the DMS will not only gather mobile data from system devices but also give users the option of comparing that data to personal information stored in other government databases.
The law society contends that phone calls are exceedingly private and that the regulator, agents, or other parties involved in the setup and usage of the DMS shouldn’t listen in on them.
“It is therefore clear that DMS shall curtail the right to privacy of communications of nearly all mobile phone users in the nation,” the LSK says.
Article 19 supports the LSK’s position, stating from its intrusive nature, the DMS will be able to carry out surveillance on individuals using their mobile phones.
“If communications and locations are not private, the use of the DMS will automatically have a detrimentally chilling effect on the right to freedom of expression in the country,” the human rights body says.
Safaricom had raised concerns that the tracking devices would give the regulator access to other customer data held by the telecom operators.
The CA has defended the DMS arguing that the installation of the system was meant to fight counterfeits through the creation of an Equipment Identification Register (EIR), which will detect all devices, isolate the illegal ones and deny fake services.
The agency argues that the purveyors of counterfeit devices have become more high-tech and started cloning genuine IMEI numbers to the counterfeit devices which makes detection harder.
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