Browsing: Privacy protection

Biometric voting in Ghana. Most cards and the voting equipment are produced by Western companies and there is no telling where this data will end up. www.theexchange.africa

Africa lags behind when it comes to data and privacy protection exposing the continent’s population to threats which could become expensive to them.

A report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) shows that 107 countries have put in place legislation to secure the protection of data and privacy. 66 of these countries are developing or transition economies.

In this area, Asia and Africa show a similar level of adoption, with less than 40 per cent of countries having a law in place.

Despite the prospective growth in mobile money transfers and e-transactions, Africa is still far behind in legislation to govern the sector. In addition, cybercrime regulations are few in Africa with 39 countries having some legislation and representing 72 per cent of the continent, 2 countries have draft legislation while 12 countries have no legislation and one has no data.

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