‘Report unsolicited text messages from mobile network operators’
The Executive Director of the Data Protection Commission (DPC), Mrs Teki Akuetteh Falconer, has appealed to the public to report data collectors and processors who infringe on their privacy for investigation and redress.
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She noted that the public was yet to take advantage of the Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843), which was passed to regulate the processing of personal information and also to make provision for the process, obtaining, holding, using or disclosing personal information.
Mrs Falconer, who made the appeal at a press conference in Accra yesterday, cited for instance that since the passage of the Act in 2012, only one person had so far reported harassment with unsolicited text messages from mobile network operators to the commission.
She said the commission was unable to confront the telecom operators because they had always insisted that they had the subscribers’ consent.
Invaded privacy
Mrs Falconer noted with concern that in recent times, “the barrage of privacy invasions on us, through various mediums, have led to discrimination, personal embarrassment, damage to professional reputations, financial losses and in some cases, loss of lives.”
“Today, with advances in technology, we share personal information on an unprecedented scale. On daily basis, our personal information is collected and shared without our knowledge or consent. “Our ability to seclude ourselves or share our information selectively is under threat,” she added.
She explained that it was to protect the individual’s right to privacy that the law was passed by Parliament, saying that the law provided for the process by which one could obtain, hold, use or disclose personal information and other related issues bordering on the protection of personal data.
Conference
She announced that it was in the light of such invasions that the commission was inviting all data controllers and processors to the maiden edition of a two-day annual conference on January 29 and 30, 2016 in Accra.
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The conference, dubbed, “The 2016 data protection conference,” will create a platform for participants to discuss the challenges militating against data controllers and processors and also address data protection trends in the region and the world as a whole.
Mrs Falconer said the participants in the conference would brainstorm on issues affecting data controllers and processors.
“This conference is part of our annual awareness creation efforts to promote good practice among data controllers and processors,” she explained, and called on those who had not yet registered for the conference to do so.
Data protection
The Board Chairman of the commission, Professor Justice Samuel Kofi Date-Bah, further explained that the broad objectives of the conference were to raise consciousness about data protection issues and to sensitise the general public and key stakeholders to the statutory obligations that had been imposed in relation to the protection of data.
He said the protection of the privacy of the individual and his or her personal data by the regulation of the processing of personal information has a clear linkage with the provisions of Article 18(2) of the 1992 Constitution.
“Article 18(2) says: No person shall be subjected to interference with the privacy of his home, property, correspondence or communication except in accordance with law and as may be necessary in a free and democratic society for public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the protection of health or morals, for the prevention of disorder or crime or for the protection of the rights or freedoms of others.”