Kenya to require users of Wi-Fi to register with government
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/07/kenya-to-require-users-of-wi-fi-to-register-with-government/
Yesterday, in a speech before the annual general meeting of the
Association of Regulators of Information and Communications for
Eastern and Southern Africa (ARICEA), Wangusi said, "We will
license KENIC to register device owners using their national
identity cards and telephone numbers. The identity of a device will
be known when it connects to Wi-Fi." He also said that the
Communications Authority would set up a forensics laboratory within
three months to "proactively monitor impending cybersecurity
attacks, detect reactive cybercrime, and link up with the judiciary
in the fight," according to a report from Kenya's Daily Nation.
The registry will enable Kenyan authorities to "be able to trace
people using national identity cards that were registered and their
phone numbers keyed in during registration" if the devices are
associated with criminal activity on the Internet, Wangusi said.
The regulation would apply to anyone connecting to a public Wi-Fi
network. KENIC would maintain the database of devices; anyone
connecting to a public network at a hotel, cafe, or other business
would be required to register before accessing it. If businesses
providing Wi-Fi fail to comply with the regulation, they could have
their Internet services cut off. Additionally, Wangusi announced
that all Kenyan businesses will be required to host their websites
within Kenya, purportedly to "avoid extra costs associated with
sending data out to a different location and back again to the
website owner," reported Daily Nation's Lilian Ochieng. Kenya has
just taken over the chair of ARICEA, which coordinates Internet and
telecommunications policy across the members of the Common Market
for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). That puts Wangusi and the
Communication Authority of Kenya in a position to press for similar
Internet regulations in the other 20 member states in Africa's free
trade area, which spans from Libya to Namibia.
- - -
Looks the real purpose is to try ensure political control to attack
anyone who disagrees with the current government.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein
Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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