From a discussion in the skunkworks group forums: Taking up on concerns about e-government in the IPO application process, the same site now offers investors tracking their applications a chance to check how many shares they will get. (I checked and for retail investors, like me, the 22% application appears to be in order)
However the skunkworks group users raised concerns that anyone (not just applicants) could tweak ID and CDS numbers and look up other people’s applications – and beyond that - box numbers, phone numbers, e-mail, amounts applied for, where their refunds will go, etc.
update 1 [SITE TAKEN DOWN NOW - 5PM NAIROBI TIME]
update 2 CHECK BALANCES VIA PHONE SMS
There was an advert in the Saturday (7/6) newspapers, advising investors to confirm their allocations via mobile phone SMS; send an SMS with CDS and ID numbers ( "CDS___*ID ____*")to 2732 on Safaricom or Celtel [cost is Kshs. 10 per message] I tried but got an error message, i.e one of my numbers was wrong!
Update 3 CHECK BALANCES VIA PHONE SMS
There was an advert in the Sunday (8/6) newspapers, advising investors to confirm their allocations via mobile phone SMS; send an SMS with CDS and ID numbers ( "CDS___*ID ____*")to 4009 on Safaricom or Celtel [cost is free/unknown] I tried and got an answer SIX HOURS later, same balance as the e-mail - 22%
7 comments:
some kind of verification is needed
Email maybe?
Either that or the site should not show personal details
Here in the US we have the same problem too. You just need to know one's name to dig up on them
Judicial and property tax records are freely available online. For less than $5 you can buy personal information online. Show's one's address, tel number, businesses, court cases, etc etc.
Let me admit that I've snooped on some of my friends and colleagues.
I know how much child support the single mums are getting plus one or two kenyans who married and divorced secretly for makaratasi.
That is why I don't put my info online. Using linkedin, facebook and etc only helps to the connect dots.
maybe it was a typo
http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=1&newsid=124865
"The Government plans to create a department in the Central Bank of Kenya to help start micro-finance institutions such as pyramid schemes, put in place legislation for savings and co-operative societies and form the Kenya Investment Authority."
The idea was really good. It's a pity the site was taken down. Surely some sort of safeguard was available somewhere to prevent the record tampering.
fimbo: e-mail verification would be a nice fix to this otherwise useful site
Ssembonge: well put, the more info put online, the more it can be interepreted, this site was good (saved a lot of time for applicants who would have queued), but they need a slight fix in terms of privacy
Ugandan Insomniac: agreed, great site, as fimbo said, perhaps e-mail verification should have been required
Privacy has been a huge concern for me in Kenya. Ever since living in Europe with its strong privacy laws, I have been very careful here in Kenya as to who I give my private info. I do not trust anyone with my info and very weary of writing my ID no in those books at security checks. I do not have those cards from Uchumi or Nakumatt the reason being that they never tell me what they do with the information that they gather about me. With marketeers in Kenya getting more and more prolific and aggressive, it is a matter of time before one comes up with the brilliant idea of selling peoples personal data... Nakumatt or Uchumi could do it very easily and the mobile companies could join the bandwagon too.
I sound very pessimistic when it comes to personal data but that is because I have experienced first hand what one can do with your personal information.
Today I openned a bank account. The thing that bugged me the most about the whole process was how easy it was for anyone to easily get a new account holder's personal information. Given Kenyans' penchant for not waiting their turn orderly in a queue, there was a jumbled mass of humanity at the counter, with all information filled out on forms visible to all as the person at the desk keyed it in into the computer. And I could see some people craning their necks to try and read what was on the forms. Lucky for me when it was my turn, the operator put the form such that it couldn't be read easily. This was very unlike the US where you had to wait your turn a good distance behind the current person being served.
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