Sonko himself is famous for ‘sharing’ phone recordings of private conversations with politicians and other bigwigs. This raises the question, does Sonko, as a private individual, have the right to secretly record individuals without their knowledge and, further, share these recordings with the public. The recently passed Data Protection Act strengthens Article 31 by placing restrictions on the use, collection and sharing of an individual’s personal data and in so doing, it attempts to revert power and control of personal data back to an individual. In all the ‘anti-surveillance’ laws that attempt to provide protection for personal data and privacy, the action being criminalised or protected against emanates from government, big data and/or service providers, and not private individuals. In the very least, they would be violating the Data Protection Act and should be prosecuted.

Source: The Star December 11, 2019 00:56 UTC