Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act Allowing Govt to Spy Your Real-Time Communications

The government and its agencies will now be able to spy on your communications, collect or record your traffic data in real-time for a period of up to six months.

Section 28 of the Act states that where a police officer has reasonable grounds to believe that certain communications traffic data is required for the purposes of a specific criminal investigation, he may apply to the court for an order to collect or record it in real-time.

Following such an application, the court may permit the police officer to compel a service provider to collect your traffic data in real time.

[caption caption="President Uhuru making a phone call"][/caption]

The court may also compel the service provider to cooperate and assist a police officer in the collection or recording of the real-time traffic data.

The Act further allows the government to continue with real-time collection or recording of traffic data for a period of up to six months.

However, the Government is obliged to maintain the privacy of other users, customers, and third parties and not disclose such data to any party not part of the investigation.

Interestingly, the law does not require the government and its agencies to seek consent from the users on the collection and usage of their information at any particular time.

The Act defines "traffic data" to include the communication's origin, destination, route, time, date, size, duration or the type of underlying service.

Another provision of the new law in Section 12 is against the intentionally publication of fake news with the intent that the data shall be considered or acted upon as authentic, with or without any financial gain.

[caption caption="A graphic illustration of a hacker"][/caption]

Committing such an offense will lead to a fine not exceeding Ksh5 million or an imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years, or both.

  • . .