Data protection laws in Africa
Safaricom to Start Hiding Identity of Subscribers on Lipa na M-Pesa
Sourced from Tech Weez. Safaricom will start hiding contact details of customers making payments through Lipa na M-Pesa at the end of June to curb trade and leaking of personal information to advertisers and fraudsters. “Pursuant to the Data Protection Act 2019 which came into law on 25th November 2019, Safaricom will be changing how they share data with Lipa Na M-Pesa Partners in general,” says Safaricom, East Africa’s largest telecom group, about its new privacy shift. According to Business Daily, the telco will only display the first name of subscribers who are making payments through the platform and a few digits of their phone number. Safaricom seems to be adopting the same model as the one used by banks in Kenya, in line with the data protection law, which was enacted in 2019 to prot...
A Brief View of Data Protection Laws in Africa
Image sourced from Pixabay In Africa, various jurisdictions have data protection laws to secure the transfer of personal data between entities. These laws largely affect multinational companies that do international trade. Organizations with a global footprint require personal data transfer across countries, and these data protection laws must be complied with to transfer data across borders legally. Organizations around the world are increasingly investing in the African market. To lawfully carry out business operations in Africa, it is imperative for organizations to understand the data protection landscape in Africa. Data protection laws are proposed by governments not to hinder personal data transfer by organizations but to regularize how organizations handle personal data. These laws ...
