Analysis of the regime of systematic government access to private sector data in Tanzania

ABSTRACT The ability of the Tanzanian government to carry out systematic access to personal data held by private sector entities has significantly expanded in the last ten years. This is due to adoption of new legislation as well as amendment of existing ones with the view of giving law enforcement and intelligence agencies enormous powers to access private sector data without authorisation of an independent oversight institution such as court. Also, this development is due to the government ever increasing use of modern technologies to ease access of data as demonstrated by the recent acquisition of Telecommunications Traffic Monitoring System which has the capabilities of intercepting communication data as well as content of such communication. The aim of this article is to analyse laws and practices of systematic government access to private sector data in Tanzania and suggest areas where law reforms are necessary.