Malawi: Making RA a Human Rights Issue

In a previous post I highlighted the plans of Malawi’s regulator to implement a controversial new ‘spy’ system for the purpose of revenue assurance, amongst other reasons. Last week Malawi’s operators announced that the system, called the Consolidated ICT Regulatory Management System (CIRMS), had received the official go-ahead. They also gave a dire warning to their customers:

“Once the system has been implemented, the operators will no longer be in a position to safeguard the privacy and confidentiality of customers’ communication activities, as we understand it to be our obligation under our respective operating licences, subscriber contracts, the communications Act (1998) and the Constitution of the Republic of Malawi…”

In turn, the operators’ announcement prompted journalists to join the chorus of complaints; see here and here.

But that is not where the story ends. In a dramatic twist, a High Court injunction issued on Friday 14th October has prohibited the use of the system for gathering CDR data; see here. Malawi’s government is reportedly backing the implementation of the system, but its difficulties intensified when Malawi’s Vice President, Joyce Banda, publicly criticized the system as ‘unconstitutional’; see here.

Reading over the story, it feels like some concerns are exaggerated (I doubt the system will allow government to literally listen to voice calls) whilst others are genuine (the government probably will be able to read SMS messages, which is way beyond what is necessary to satisfy their stated objectives). Either way, Malawi is heading towards becoming a vital test case for telecoms worldwide. Can governments act in a way that apparently compromises customer privacy in order to better monitor telcos? Or will customers be prompted to such an extreme reaction that the government has to back down?

Eric Priezkalns
Eric Priezkalnshttp://revenueprotect.com

Eric is the Editor of Commsrisk. Look here for more about the history of Commsrisk and the role played by Eric.

Eric is also the Chief Executive of the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG), an association of professionals working in risk management and business assurance for communications providers. RAG was founded in 2003 and Eric was appointed CEO in 2016.

Previously Eric was Director of Risk Management for Qatar Telecom and he has worked with Cable & Wireless, T‑Mobile, Sky, Worldcom and other telcos. He was lead author of Revenue Assurance: Expert Opinions for Communications Providers, published by CRC Press.

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