There are huge differences between the regulations of information privacy in some regions that are caused by differences in culture and other significant factors. This article discusses current problems that are related to privacy in Africa that are complicated by the economic state of the countries on the continent.
The authors discuss government regulations and self-regulation. Information about technologies that would improve the privacy protection and challenges that would prevent the implementation of such innovations in Africa is also provided. The information about the current state of information privacy in other regions is listed throughout the whole article. Countries on this continent should learn from the experience of the United States and Europe in the opinion of authors. The central goal of this piece is to attract attention to this problem and list the weaknesses of the current privacy protection system in Africa. Borena, Belanger, & Ejigu (2015) state that “adoption and use of such methods do not seem viable in Africa where many users lack knowledge and skills to implement and use them” (p. 3495). Differently put, education of the population should be considered before the introduction of such tools.
I agree with the statement that privacy is not viewed as a necessary aspect of life in most African countries (Borena et al., 2015). However, I disagree that there is a need for active legislation because most regions are still developing and lack the necessary technologies. I agree that global solutions should be used to solve this problem (Borena et al., 2015). However, it should be said that the laws are still not as effective as they should even in the most developed countries, and they need further improvement. I agree that there are huge problems with knowledge because it is known that most people in Africa live in poverty, and do not know how their personal information may be gathered and abused. I agree that there is a drastic contrast between the regulations of such issues in Anglophone and Francophone countries. It was caused by the fact that they adopted different laws (Borena et al., 2015). However, I think that numerous problems should be solved before this one. The authors have proven that there are problems that are caused by the lack of education on the topic, and policy-making also needs numerous improvements (Borena et al., 2015).
Few points in this piece have caught my attention, and I think that they should be discussed more. How many years it would take to implement changes that are suggested in the article, and how soon they would become useful? What is the number of incidents that were caused by the leakage of personal information in Africa? What citizens of the most developed countries in Africa think about this problem? What measures are taken by an individual to guarantee the safety of their information in this region?
Reference
Borena, B., Belanger, F., & Ejigu, D. (2015). Information privacy protection practices in Africa: A review through the lens of critical social theory. System Sciences, 1530(1), 3490-3497.