Telecom service providers have of late been informing subscribers with multiple SIM cards registered in their names on a particular carrier, to rush to their shops and service centers with their national IDs to take them for confirmation and verification. This request by the different service providers comes less than two years after government SIM card registration deadline that saw many people rush to have their numbers synchronized with their information on the national register.
According to the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), this move is aimed at ensuring that multiple SIM cards are registered with the actual owners of the cards to help streamline the process. The UCC adds that this directive to telecom service providers also focuses on reducing the high crime rate that they claim has been on the rise.
“We are doing this, to make sure we have the correct data in what we call the know your customer (KYC) forum and secondly to make sure that peoples money and personal data is secure and lastly your own personal security and national security,” Joseph Kizito Head of consumer Affairs, UCC said.
Infringing on privacy?
However, Unwanted Witness a civil society organization that aims at securing and uncensored online platforms for human rights activist revealed that this kind of registration compromises the liberties and privacy of citizens.
“I think there is something more than what meets the eye and we want UCC to come up to tell us whats is happening, because the more you validate and collect personal data the more its being bound to being misused by criminals. Even when they tell us they are fighting crime, at the end of the day they are compromising our personal information” – Doroty Mukasa CEO Unwanted Witness
Unwanted witness says that Ugandans can easily challenge this move in the courts of law since it infringes on their privacy and it believes this move by UCC is against the principals of data protection. They have urged citizens to be very alert and aware of their rights.
For now there is no final deadline when this new SIM card confirmation exercise is supposed to be concluded, although calls and messages for registration are still being sent to different platforms.
