East African Business Week (Kampala)
Julius Torach
15 November 2009
opinion
East Africans welcomed the undersea fiber optic cables with much excitement and great expectations. When it comes to on line business transactions, concerns about cyber security, legal and ethical issues start to come up. The question of privacy must be addressed. Constitutions, legislations and past court decisions have however indicated that the right to privacy is not absolute and that privacy must be balanced against the need of society.
To gauge the seriousness of the question of privacy, consider how personal computers, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, databases and the Internet have made it possible for others to access your personal data. Other web sites collect information in more subtle ways like recording your computer address, the web pages you visit. Web sites do this by placing one or more "cookies" on the hard drive of the computer you are using.
These are small files of text that can collect and store information such as the Internet Protocol (IP) address of your computer; web sites you have visited; how many times you have visited the site; your preferences e.g language; your name and password.
How to protect your privacy: Insist on secure, encrypted web connections to conduct any sensitive transactions such as making Internet purchases or doing banking online.
lReduce the amount personal data you provide.
lRead the web site privacy policies before submitting personal information, particularly financial or medical information.
lSurf anonymously by using third party software that hides your real IP address (eg. using www.shadowsurf.com)
lUse a disposable email address instead of your usual one when giving contact information.
In conclusion, to safeguard personal information, appropriate laws and regulations, policies, technologies, human resources, awareness and business processes should be deployed.
The writer is a Specialist in e-Commerce Security, e-Governance and Research
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