THE Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) says giving the Namibia Central Intelligence Service (NCIS) unchecked powers could lead to abuse and the violation of people’s right to privacy.
The IPPR is supported by the Law Society of Namibia, which warns that the collection of data of telecommunication customers could be unconstitutional.
Namibian Sun this week reported that the government is pushing ahead with plans to get a legal mandate to intercept phone calls as well as to compel mobile operators to obtain full personal and residential details of SIM card buyers.
It cited information from a Government Gazette dated 15 March, in which minister of information and communications technology Peya Mushelenga listed several regulations to be followed.
Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia has started public hearings on the matter.
The IPPR’s research associate, Frederico Links, yesterday said Namibia is entering dangerous territory.
“We are now moving towards a situation where unaccountable state organs, such as the NCIS are being given powers of interception where there are no publicly accessible oversight mechanisms in place to keep these powers in check,” he said.
Links said such powers are being abused to unlawfully spy on journalists, political opposition, and civil society in countries across the continent, with the excuse of ‘protecting national security’.
Spying powers emanate from the Communications Act of 2009.
Even though the law was passed in 2009, the section authorising the interception of phones is not legal since its regulation is still pending.
Known as Section 6, the clause deals with the setting up of interception centres.
Links said this section has been criticised for possibly being unconstitutional.
“The regulations gazetted in March this year and the related telecommunications licence conditions recently unveiled now make the situation even more concerning,” he said.
He said the absence of personal data and online privacy protection, as well as transparent oversight mechanisms leaves room for abuse.
Legal Assistance Centre project coordinator Dianne Hubbard yesterday said communication surveillance could combat crime and terrorism, “but this needs very careful limits and safeguards to be consistent with the Constitution and to prevent possible abuse”.
Hubbard has produced an analytical piece on the latest regulations that paves the way for potential spying.
The regulations make provision for “modest payments to telecommunications service providers like MTC for each interception target and each information request, as well as amounts to cover printing costs and electronic copying costs and overtime work required to respond to requests for data or interceptions”.
She said telecommunications companies are required to collect and store the data of every user who meets the definition of ‘customer’ – thus retaining a massive amount of data of which only a tiny proportion is likely to ever be requested by the police or intelligence services.
“This would likely mean that the approach taken could not satisfy the principle that justifiable interference with a constitutional right must be as minimal as possible, and only what is reasonably necessary to serve the objective,” she said.
Hubbard said it is more likely that a targeted data-retention scheme would pass constitutional muster – with data being retained and stored only in respect of people who are reasonably suspected of having some connection to serious crime.
“It seems likely that Namibia’s telecommunications data-retention scheme might be found to be an unconstitutional infringement of the right to privacy overall, given the intrusion into the privacy of large segments of the population in a manner that has a questionable ability to serve the intended objectives,” she said.
Hubbard said: “It seems to be constitutionally faulty in some key aspects relating to the breadth of its coverage and the kinds of data required to be collected, the lack of procedural safeguards and the lack of attention to data protection principles. It does not seem to be appropriately proportional to its aims.”
Questions sent to Mushelenga yesterday went unanswered.
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