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Living in SA better to avoid cyber snooping

Cape Town - South Africa may be one of the better countries to conduct cyber accounts if the results of the Google Transparency report are anything to go by.

According to the latest release from the internet giant, governments around the world, particularly Western government are increasing their requests for personal information.

Countries with traditionally liberal values have doubled down on user data requests from the search giant.

According to the data, Germany and France made over 3 000 requests for user information, and in both cases, Google complied in 48% and 59% of cases respectively.

However, that number pales in comparison to the US which made over 12 000 requests for personal information which affected over 21 000 user accounts. In that case, Google complied in 84% of cases.

Mopping up data

The South African government though, made only seven requests and Google did not comply with any of them, the report reveals.

Nevertheless, the trend indicates that governments are increasingly using legal processes to force internet companies to hand over personal data.

Microsoft made headlines when the company took the unusual step of fighting a US warrant to hand over personal e-mails of a US citizen stored on a server in Ireland.

Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo and other internet companies are fighting wide-ranging data mopping up activities of governments, particularly western governments that have criticised countries like China for restricting internet freedoms.

In SA, the Protection of Personal Information Act, commonly known as Popi, places restrictions of how local firms can use personal information.

However, it is unlikely that international corporations will feel obligated to pay attention to local laws on personal data.

There are serious implications for companies and individuals who have data stored in the internet cloud with international companies. One strategy to mitigate the risk is to encrypt data where possible.

"Where possible, make use of encryption. The key consideration here is that the local user retains the encryption keys within their own exclusive control, specifically out of the control of the Service Provider. So if the cloud service provider is compelled to hand over a local user’s data in secret, they are unable to do so, because they do not have the encryption keys," JJ Milner, founder and chief cloud architect at Global Micro told Fin24.


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