Kenya organises data protection hackathon
The Kenyan Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) has organised a hackathon to promote a data protection culture among the country's data controllers and processors.
The hackathon will take place from the 3rd to the 6th of May, with winners receiving $1.600 (Ksh.200.000) in prize money.
It will be open to university and college students from both public and private institutions who are skilled in web development and common programming languages. Teams will consist of five members.
The winning pupils will take home $768 (KES 100,000) in prize money, while the runners-up will be awarded $470 (KES 60.000), and the third-place children will earn $310 (KES 40.000).
The winners will be chosen based on their creativity, practicality and feasibility, implementation, influence on data security, and presentation.
This hackathon takes place at a time when the ODPC has been advocating for Kenyan organisations to protect personal data by implementing technical and organisational safeguards stipulated by the Data Protection Act 2019.
The Act imposes many obligations on data processors and data controllers regarding the processing of personal data, as well as their duties to data subjects.
It also comes at a time when concerns about how local organisations, particularly digital lenders, have been accused of exploiting personal data.
The potential of intruding on privacy is increasing by the day, thanks to the enormous volume of data acquired by such companies and developments in processing technology.
These organisations have always been expected to be upfront about their data privacy rules, which can lead to a variety of benefits, including customer acquisition and retention.
The winners of the hackathon will be announced during the Network of Data Protection Authorities Conference on May 7, which is an international on data protection.