Another privacy issue with Telecommunication networking here in Uganda



 You recently heard of a saga in MTN and AIRTEL mobile money transactions where it is said that money was fraudulently withdrawn.As I have always written,there are many ambiguities within the activities of most telecommunication companies' activities here in Uganda.

Nearly all these telecommunication companies give out IMSI to other people if we or customers spend sometime without using them.I am very sure of this,Airtel and MTN do this.I have always asked myself these questions! How long does it take for a legally registered phone number that is not being used(some reasons may force a mobile network subscriber to drop down his phone number,for example if he has travelled away from home to another country,or if he does it for security reasons) to be given to another subscriber??Is it lawfull for telecommunication companies to give out these numbers to other people when the first one had legally registered them?Are telecommunication companies not supported to first notify the original owner( the first person to register the number?.You remember the issue of some other numbers that were cut off network,these numbers have also been seemingly given to other people.

There are some privacy and security issues these telecommunication companies should be careful of. Some of these numbers were used to register social media accounts of the first owners and some of them still use them as login IDs yet they do not know that they numbers are already registered and owned by other people.This affects both Facebook,Twitter,Instagram,...etc.It means that if the one currently having the number discovers that the number he owns had social media accounts on which it's registered, then he can easily take over the accounts.To the security part of it,it very dangerous to give or register such numbers to other people,some people may have committed crimes and dropped their phone numbers,some can take years under investigation,and if a telecommunication company issues such a number to an innocent and the investigation gets him because of phone number, can't the telecommunication company be liable to answer for all this ambiguity?

There is also another issue with Facebook accounts,how long does it take for a phone number registered as a login ID to be deleted? It is shocking that ,in respect to the issue I presented above,even those numbers given to other people yet Registered on social media of the first owners,even if the first owners tries to delete it off,it seemingly shows it is deleted but still it continues being used as a login ID.I started developing the suspicion when I heard of "GHETTO TV" having be hacked and the blame was being put on the gorvenment.The reality is that GHETTO TV may have thought that it deleted one of it's admins yet this admin would have held a phone number used to create this page at the first time or the email associated with that GHETTO TV page.He may have used the same phone number to take over the page.Thus it is clear that the gorvenment was not involved.Now my Question goes to the overall manager of Facebook database to get a look into this issue and fix it fast.I also call upon all telecommunication companies to stop giving out legally registered phone numbers to other people,because it exposes the original owner to danger of data intrusion and general privacy concerns.To the police,and other crime investigative departments plus other intelligence bodies,it should be noted that such scenerio is not good.A criminal may have dropped the number because of crimes,thus telecommunication companies should be compelled to give warning when the want to give out numbers to other people,besides I do not see why a number legally registered should be given to another person.

Lastly and not the least,I call upon UCC to exercise it's duties and save innocent Ugandans,I think you have heard of alot of scenerios of data leakages in the world that had significant impact on businesses,health facilities, security agencies.. etc.Let some of these issues you call small issues not escalate into bigger issues.Fore warned Fore armed!

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