Telecom Companies On the Spot- Unwanted Witness Uganda demands investigations

The unwanted witness a civil society organization advocating for online space user rights among others  has petitioned Uganda Telecom regulator, Uganda Communication Commission (UCC) calling for the regulator to restrain telecom companies from engaging in unlawful acts that aim at abusing the privacy of subscribers.

Under the law telecom service providers are mandated to ensure and maintain confidentiality of the content of all communications whether data or any information that is obtained as a result of the service offered. This service can only be disclosed to third party with the commission’s written consent or by an order of a competent court of law.

“The past three weeks we have witnessed gross violation of the law and invention of citizens’ privacy by a private telecom company under the watchful eye of UCC as a regulator. This is unacceptable and we want UCC to evoke its legal mandate to immediately restrain MTN from further sending/spamming its subscribers with unsolicited political messages.” Says Geoffrey Wokulira Ssebagala, CEO, Unwanted Witness Uganda.

He noted that since it is the mandate of the commission to ensure that all telecommunications consumers are registered, its important that the same is extended to errant companies who misuse the generated personal data.

MTN Uganda has shared personal data generated during the recent SIM Card registration with NRM’s communications Center which has since used its inquiry and contact center number “0207” to deliver candidate Museveni’s recorded voice calls to MTN subscribers.

By Joshua Mutale.