I will be honest with you, I don’t particularly care about my data being collected online. Please don’t stone me, I know I should care but I don’t really lose sleep over Google knowing that I watch a ridiculous amount of videos on town planning in the Netherlands.
You know how we humans are though, we often think everyone is like us. I’ve long thought Zimbabweans don’t really care about that kind of thing. However, a survey done by the Postal and Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe challenges what I thought was truth.
Data Privacy: Opinions and Experiences of Zimbabweans
The full report is being finalised but Potraz gave us a little teaser of what’s within it:
- 99% of respondents highlighted that the protection of personal information is valuable to them
- 93% supported custodial sentencing of those found in violation of data privacy
At first, this shocked me until I realised I was being daft. This is not about Facebook and Google crafting detailed profiles of people based on their search histories and app usage and then sharing that with advertisers. This is more about having one’s private chats leaked.
I do not know exactly how the questions were phrased but I believe that’s how people understood it. Potraz was probably concerned more about companies that collect personal information (data controllers) misusing that data.
If it’s about protecting private chats, then 100% should care. We should all want to see violators of our privacy sentenced to jail or at the very least, have to pay heavy fines.
I am not sure 99% are as worried about their digital profiles, which exclude private chats, being used inappropriately.
Violations
- 22% of those surveyed said they have experienced the misuse of their private data at least once
- 77% reported that they did not know who to seek help from in case of data violations
The leakage and exposure of private chats or intimate images to the public can be a devastating experience. Regrettably, such actions have become a widespread occurrence among Zimbabweans, who use this private information to harm their exes during breakups.
I still would not have thought 22% of adults have experienced this. That’s much higher than I thought.
I think the misuse of personal data includes having your phone number scraped from WhatsApp groups and shared with others without your consent. Many of us have been added to WhatsApp groups without our knowledge.
If we included that as misuse of private data (phone numbers), I could see more than 22% of people reporting having their personal data misused.
Other insights
I call BS on this one:
- 48% confirmed that they always take time to review cookie policies, when prompted, before accepting or rejecting
There is no way half the population carefully studies cookie policies before accepting or rejecting them. I refuse to believe it.
If you’re not sure what we are talking about, a cookie policy is a statement or document provided by a website or online service that informs users about how cookies are used on the site and how their personal data may be processed through these cookies.
Those policies are in the same boat as terms and conditions, no one is reading them.
I am curious to see how the question was phrased that made Zimbabweans lie that they read cookie policies.
For something that sounds about right:
- 47% were willing to share their personal information if they felt they could obtain clear benefits from doing so
I would have thought it would be higher than 47%. We’re freely doling out all of our data to be able to use Gmail and YouTube for free, we’re not about to start getting shy with our personal information.
Anyway, other insights include:
- 64% confirmed that Covid-19 made them more digitally active
- 47% reported experiencing a rise in unsolicited marketing communications over the past year
- 72% highlighted that they did not know how to opt out of receiving such communications
- 80% did not understand what companies do/can do with their personal information
- 25% were aware of the risks posed by ‘free’ online services to personal data privacy and security
- 82% reported that they did not understand laws around the use of personal information
I can’t wait to dig into the full report when it comes out.
Also read:
Here are your rights when people collect your data in Zim, can’t have them collect it willy-nilly
Here’s your citizen’s guide to the Cyber Security & Data Protection Act
22 comments
Agh Leonard you don’t eat cookies??…me I love them
🤣🤣 Nah, too sweet for my taste.
😂🤣😂🤣
I have to be honest, l don’t review cookies at all if l am interested with a website or application l will just press accept and the check box ☑️ that says do you accept the TC’s and C’s 😂
Exactly, ain’t nobody got time to read all that. Click ‘Accept’ and get on with your life – is my motto. Some Zimbos out here lying, telling Potraz they read that stuff.
Exactly what I do too. I just accept.
Mapombi mapombi
When prompted, I always disable all non essential cookies. Always. Maybe I’m just one of a few
You are definitely in the minority. To the rest of us, those are just a nuisance, we just click Accept as quickly as possible to move it along.
I am curious though, why do you feel the need to review those policies? I genuinely need to understand because to me, they all ask for more or less the same thing.
Recommendations on YouTube put me in the privacy-bro camp, so I guess I’ve become more aware of the threats and annoyances that comes with giving away data. Now, being in zim, the ultimate risk to livelihood, safety or risk of manipulation or fraud is seemingly negligible. Still, internet is forever, so I’d rather be judicious with my little data now than be regretful in the future.
Our generation cannot spent more than a few seconds reading boring stuff like terms and conditions.We just say accept even if you are giving away your rights as long as you get to use whatever site or app. I have installed my fair share if software and I can safely say I didn’t read terms and conditions 99% of the time.You could hide Bitcoin wallet credentials for a wallet with 100BTC in terms and conditions and it would probably stay intact for a very long time even with huge amounts of traffic.
We are the TLDR generation for sure. But in our defence, those T’s and C’s are so long and if you were to read all of them for every service you want to use, you would not have time to do anything else. They are long and in legalese by design methinks.
Potraz is lying plan and simple. People dont care about all those privacy issues.
Sometime, it makes the life become more interesting!
Typical zimbawean nonsense. Produce a survey full of lies with just a bit of truth and then use it to justify some restrictive law down the line. And when people ask WTF? they’ll point to this BS survey.
Surveys are funny things. Even when they are honestly conducted the phrasing of a question and the limited selection of answers can sometimes almost dictate the result in a lot instances. So their results or conclusions sometimes need a grain of salt.
And this is Zimbabwe how do we even know that they really conducted a survey? Maybe someone just sat at his/her desk at work and produced these results.
I bet you are saying to yourself… “The Empress you’re being paranoid” but hear me out let me explain.
Potraz conducted this survey right? This survey was about data privacy and user data violations right?
This survey is about things that happen when people use the Internet right?
Then how come there was no online survey from Potraz? (at least I never saw it)
Potraz could have sent out a mass SMS blast to all Zimbabweans. This SMS would have a link to said survey. This sms blasting wouldn’t cost Potraz anything because it would fall under public service so all Mobile Network Providers would have to comply. This sms would have at the very least ensured that the so called survey would be completed by people who are able and willing to go online to share their opinions.
So can someone please explain to me how a survey about things on the Internet whose results may possibly be used in the crafting of future laws, was seemingly conducted by standing outside Potraz headquarters nd asking the first 100 people who walked by their personal opinions?
A grain of salt? This survey needs much more than a grain of salt to be believed.
I don’t think you’re being paranoid. If we look at the Cyber Security and Data Protection Act, the results of this survey support all the assumptions that went into drafting the Act.
We get to hear from many people in different cliques in Zim and no one has any idea where the supposed people that care about privacy and read cookie policies are. It’s too perfect of a result for those on a campaign to promote the Data Protection Act, therefore, it’s not paranoid to think of the survey as an awareness campaign for the Act.
You made a good point about the survey not being done online. Potraz says they conducted face to face interviews. Online surveys have their drawbacks but common sense says when this is the subject matter, an online survey yields the most accurate results.
So, we might as well not babysit two or three salt shakers, we should turn it up a notch, let’s get a swimming pool full of salt then we dive in it.
s h ! t i just wasted 2 minutes reading this c r @ p
I just wasted 2 seconds reading this crap comment too. Life be like that sometimes.
waste of data
but it’s free free😄
Kkkkk they probable asked people who use Whatsapp and here in Zim those are the internet users. It’s a sham
Pane asinga verengi packet rema cookies achidya