Virtual life the real the new normal – what of data privacy?

Covid-19 has forced organisations to move most of their services online in a very short time. 

Schools, restaurants, hospitals, gyms, supermarkets - pretty much any service that can be digitised or streamed has quickly gone online and that is a good thing.

Who wouldn’t want the convenience of ordering their food, groceries or whatever product online and have it delivered right to their doorstep within minutes?

But do we ever stop to think of the actors behind the convenience and what they do with our personal data that they need in order to deliver our products?

It is an interesting conversation that affects each of the actors in the current ecosystem, and there risks and benefits faced by each actor.

For a supermarket to deliver that online order to your doorstep, they would rely on several third party platform providers that include the eCommerce platform as well as the transport platform.

So the supermarket would hire the eCommerce platform providers like Jumia, Glovo, Masoko and others to list the supermarket products for customers to access and buy.

In this example, the supermarket is considered the data controller while the platform provider is the data processor, collecting and processing personal data on behalf of the controller.

The personal data includes your name, telephone number, residence location, payment details, etc. needed to complete the transaction.

Indeed, there is a third player who has access to your personal data - the transport company.

But why should you care about all this?  After all, all you want is that your lunch or grocery is delivered to your doorstep in the shortest time possible.

The first reason you should care is simply that your personal data could be breached or abused by any of the above actors that you have implicitly trusted with your digital identity.

If the eCommerce platform contracted by the supermarket fails to secure your personal data and it falls into the wrong hands, you will become exposed to all manner of risks.

The easiest one that most can identify with is the financial risk, where your payment details are abused and used for fraudulent activities.

There are however additional risks relating to your residency data that could equally be abused - depending, of course, on your profile or number of people in society who for various reasons count you as their enemy.

Should you be worried about transacting online? Yes. Should you stop transacting online?  Definitely Not.

Digital economic activity is the future and what the Covid-19 crisis has done is simply bring that future closer to you.

What you need to do is to be aware of the risks that each digital opportunity presents and then start demanding your digital rights accordingly.

To help you along that journey is the Data Protection Act enacted last year, which defines the rights and obligation of each of the actors in this digital ecosystem.

There are certain expectations that the data controllers must deliver on, including securing your data and getting penalised or sanctioned as prescribed in cases of breaches.

There are also digital rights granted to you as the customer. These include but are not limited to the right to know from your supermarket how they processes your data, whom they share it with, what they have stored about you, how you can access and correct amongst others.

It is your obligation as the data subject to demand for this information from your favorite online trader as a way of mitigating the risks that you face as you continue enjoying your digital conveniences.

If you do not take up your role as prescribed in the data protection act, the data controller will only be too happy to retain total control of how they process your data – most often at your expense.

 Mr Walubengo is a lecturer at Multimedia University of Kenya, Faculty of Computing and IT.Email: [email protected], Twitter: @Jwalu