If Internet shutdowns are used as a blunt-force means of blocking access locally to a specific service or application, access to other unrelated services may also be impacted as collateral damage.
The use of Biometric machines was introduced in the 2016 general elections but the machines largely failed to work and the Electoral Commission (EC) which is the electoral body resorted to manual verification of voters using a voters’ register.
When a country like Uganda is aiming at becoming a middle income economy and wants to anchor the growth on its information and communication sector, Internet shutdowns send all the wrong signals to investors and consumers.
As the voting day draws closer, government and different political actors are embracing technological tools to provide voter education, monitor and tally election results.
Over 20 National and International Human Rights Organisations have submitted a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai asking Google to disregard the government of Uganda’s intentions of further silencing dissent during democratic processes in the country.
The Privacy Scorecard is a monitoring tool that will be used to provide Ugandans with critical information on how different personal data collectors/processors comply with the Data Protection and Privacy Act, 2019.