CTU head calls for privacy laws to protect individuals

Secretary General of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) is calling on regional governments to pass laws to protect the privacy of individuals.

According to Bernadette Lewis, “It is a case of making sure that your legislative framework is able to deal with the new style of robber, who is still stealing, but using the technology in different ways."

Speaking at the Caribbean Information Communication and Technology (ICT) Road Show in Dominica she told reporters today's robbers who operate in the world of technology have a different profile.

“You know have a robber who goes on the internet, who steals people’s information or their bank information and they are robbing them. They are stealing the same way but maybe the law does not recognise that he is using the technology now to steal in a different way.

“So the laws have to be adjusted. All the Caribbean needs to do that. I think there is legislation reform going on in many countries. Every country has to do it and there are issues not just only relating to the crime but things like privacy, issues of intellectual property.

“Now that we live in a global village everybody is connected your intellectual endeavours and your product they can be transmitted halfway across the world instantaneously, so the opportunity for you losing control of your intellectual property are multiplied …because of this evolution of the technology”.

Lewis believes “things must be put in place in the legal and policy framework to ensure that people’s privacy is protected”.

She said the Caribbean has also not fully realized the potential of the new technologies.

“Unfortunately what we see happening in the region is that we invest a lot in the technology, but we just scratch the surfaces of what the technology can do for us,” she said.

She said the problem facing the region when it comes to understanding and working with new technology is that people lack ICT education so they are unaware of how to use it. So the they use processes that were centuries old and are expecting to see positive results. 

She noted that when it comes to technology people have to be innovative.

She used as an example the new, costly and sophisticated mobile phones that have many applications yet “all they are doing is making telephone calls." She added, “There are a whole suit of services you could use incorporating it into your business.”