Uganda is performing below average in the personal data protection report released by Unwanted Witness, a civil society organization that advocates for digital rights and privacy.

The report highlights a survey carried out between January and September 2023 among four countries including Uganda, Mauritius, Kenya, and Zimbabwe.

It targeted 48 selected companies across six sectors of telecommunication, e-commerce, financial services, e-government, digital loan services, and online betting.

The report indicated that Kenya was ranked overall with the highest index of 47.3% and Zimbabwe scored 23.1%, with the e-commerce sector scoring an average score of 50.1%, digital loan services at 44.9%, telecommunications and financial services registered a tie and 39.7%, online betting 33.8% and e-government 11.1%.

The report is heavily characterized by a growing digital landscape and increasing internet penetration. Uganda in particular has made significant strides in developing its ICT infrastructure on a positive note.

This is aided by the enactment of the Data Protection and Privacy Act in 2019 and the Data Protection and Privacy Regulations in 2021 as it empowers individuals by establishing their rights over personal data and enacts responsibilities on data controllers and processors.

Allan Ssempala, the head of legal and programs at Unwanted Witness attributed Uganda's flourishing tech startup ecosystem and the rising number of internet users underline the country's increasing reliance on digital services available in the country.

“There are many notable developments in the country that are being utilized to sprout the data privacy landscape and these include the rapid digitization of government services, financial transactions, and telecommunication which offer significant benefits.

 However, they also raise concerns about national security and the privacy of personal data at different moments when it is collected for different purposes. 

To curb the vice, the National Data Protection Office is making noticeable efforts to receive and resolve complaints at the moment.”

Ssempala noted that some companies are just impersonators of others with policies that are meant to protect them during the breach of data scenarios for some of the data protection policies, companies are simply copying and pasting what others have done, and the policies are only meant to protect these companies in case of a data breach.

“Unwanted Witness is fighting hard against such practices because people’s data should not be taken for granted due to the low awareness campaigns and lack of effective mechanisms available. Instead, people must be protected and sensitized”, said Ssempala.

He added that many companies in Uganda are using privacy policies that are more about protecting data collectors than respecting users' privacy rights and called out the need for policies that prioritize people over profits.

Baker Birikujja, the Manager of Licensing and Compliance at the Personal Data Protection Office, hailed Unwanted Witness for championing data protection and privacy through such reports and called upon the public to be vigilant while sharing their data with different people urging them to first know the background before consenting and revealing their personal data.