An Accra High Court has ordered the government to stop collecting the personal data of mobile phone subscribers.
In a 70-page judgement, the court held that the President’s actions violate and continues to violate the right to privacy.
The court, presided over by Mrs Justice Rebecca Sittie, also directed the government to delete all such data and submit a report to the Registrar of the High Court within 14 days.
The court ordered Vodafone, the NCA and Kelni GVG to pay damages of GH¢ 20,000 each to the applicant.
It may be recalled that on April 6, 2020, Mr Francis Kwarteng Arthur, a private legal practitioner, went to the High Court to challenge the President’s order contained in Executive Instrument (EI) Number 63 as well as the manner in which the order was being implemented.
The President, under the guise of establishing emergency communications system to aid contact tracing, on 23rd March 2020 signed an E.I. 63 introducing what, in respect of telephony transactions, mimics what was collectively rejected on very sound reasons which have not changed even in the face of Covid19.
EI 63 orders all telecommunication networks and service providers to handover the personal information of all customers and subscribers to the President.
The President’s reason for making CI 63, according to the Attorney-General, was to conduct contact-tracing to control the spread of the deadly covid-19.
Since the passing of the EI 63 in March 2020, the personal information of millions of mobile phone service subscribers has been collected and given to a private company, Kelni GVG.
Counsel for the applicant, Dr Justice Srem-Sai, argued, among others that “EI 63 offends the permissible limitation clause of the Constitution … and that the mechanism that EI 63 deploys is extremely disproportionate to the intended purpose.”
The defendants in the case are the Attorney-General, the National Communication Authority (NCA), Vodafone Ghana, MTN Ghana and Kelni GVG.
Akin to the “Spy Bill” (Interception of Postal Packets and Telecommunications Messages Bill, 2016), Citizens, Civil Societies, the NPP, Telecoms Chamber, GBA, and OccupyGhana kicked against it.
The public have indicated that EI 63 is worse version of the “Spy Bill” and that what was fought against in KelniGVG has been smuggled under section 100 of the Electronic Communications Act, without need for parliamentary scrutiny and without safeguard and supervision by any third-party or a court of law.
The law’s requirement is for a specific request at a specific time for state intrusion into specific suspect’s telephony records over a specific suspected act of criminality by that specific individual and the requested access ought to be for the duration of tracking that individual and gathering evidence of his criminal conduct.
The purpose is law enforcement and national security. The law certainly does not permit this blanket power to have full access to all records, at will, of all customers of all telcos, and for the state to be allowed a permanent presence at the telcos through a central device controlled by the state for unrestrained access to every customer’s record.
Furthemore, all your mobile money data, transaction and wallet details, merchant code, bank details – practically every private transaction details the telcos are being compelled to disclose to the government.”
