Reports of identity theft, SIM swaps, hacking and massive data leaks have increased along with internet penetration and advances in technology. It’s rare to go more than a few days without hearing about a major data breach that may have exposed personal information of millions of individuals.

Data protection laws and regulations are now in place in many parts of the world, Kenya included, and there is a rising need to know which data is essential and how best to protect yourself online.

As the world marks Data Privacy on January 28 this year, the Safaricom Newsroom spoke to Mutua Mutuku, an advocate and data compliance specialist.

Question: What are the most common ways in which an individual can breach their own right to privacy?

There are several ways in which we breach our right to privacy. Here are a few examples:

1. Sharing of personal information online like your contact details, identification etc.
2. Use of devices that access online networks, such as phones, TVs, wearable devices and computers.
3. Registering your personal details in meetings or when getting into buildings or estates.
4.  Loyalty cards at various places, such as supermarkets, with airlines, at hotels and other hospitality areas.
5. Information shared with the state such as passports, identity cards, birth certificates and academic information.
6. Being captured by closed-circuit television (CCTV).

Question: What are the easiest ways to protect yourself?

There are a number.

1. Making strong passwords: create unique passwords rather than the cliché birthdays, your mother’s middle name, your best friend’s name, where you went to high school, and so on. These passwords should be a mix of lower and upper case letters, numbers, and symbols.
2. In the connected world we are in, one should avoid oversharing by being cautious when publicizing your location, place of residence or job, birthday, or other sensitive information on social media. Hackers or fraudsters can use this information for social engineering purposes and gain access to your personal accounts.
3. One of the 48 laws of power is to avoid free lunches. For data privacy, be wary of free public Wi-Fi networks because they have little security mechanisms in place, which means that others using the same network might easily access your activities.
4. Keep an eye out for links and attachments since cybercriminals are crafty and will frequently disguise their phishing schemes as legitimate messages.

Question: Why should people be concerned about where they give out their personal data, case in point when accessing a building or office?  

Any right-thinking citizen should be wary of where and whom and how much personal data they share. All this data being collected has raised ongoing concerns – how much of it is being collected, what is the purpose, who has access to it, what uses is it being put to, what risks arise from these activities and so on.

However, there must be a balance made because most contemporary conveniences, legitimate and legal duties for modern commercial life, or even social life, would not be feasible if we did not allow others to gather and use this data. This, however, must be done in a responsible and accountable manner, with strict respect to the law.

Question: What’s the most important piece of advice you’d give to anyone who is online in regard to protecting their data given the growth in online access?

Less is more; the more information you provide, the greater the danger of monetary and non-monetary privacy harm.