The government’s plans to digitally eavesdrop
THE government wants to listen in on us with deep-access techniques.
The Protection of Personal Information Act of 2015, in many ways, is not fully operating as it was intended to.
The Cyber Crimes and Cyber Security Bill will override that. This will make it easy for state security to undermine personal privacy and freedom.
While the government says the Bill is needed to make cyberspace more secure, it can sometimes turn out that the government, rather than being the protector, can itself be a threat.
Those who engage in political, racial and religious banter on social platforms must know that their engagements are constantly on the radar.
While the internet has become a magic carpet ride that can take you anywhere in the world at the touch of a button, it is also the purveyor of privacy violations.
One of the downfalls of social media sites is that they can reveal your location to others.
While personal identity, marital status and residential information are of paramount importance for a country’s population register, eavesdropping on the private areas of people’s lives is just not on.
If debt defaulters want to know how they are traced to their current residential or work address, or new cellphone number, they might want to examine what they post on social media.
It reminds me of the Doris Day songline “Our secret’s not a secret anymore”.
The evil eyes of government, snooping by banks and the South African Revenue Service and constant harassment from affiliated agencies is making life difficult for the man in the street when the real crooks and thieves are the corrupt lawmakers themselves. KEVIN GOVENDER
Shallcross