CAIRO: A new Q&A in Arabic published this week provides internet users in Egypt with tips on how to use the net securely.
“The Q&A Guide to Legal Protection and Digital Security for Internet Users in Egypt” was written by lawyer Ahmed Ragheb and human rights activist Ramy Raouf.
Raouf explained to Daily News Egypt that the idea for the guide came to him and Ragheb after several training sessions on similar topics.
The 15-page guide, written in colloquial Egyptian Arabic, covers issues such as how to protect personal data online, using email securely and what online activity constitutes a criminal offence.
While only an estimated 10–15 percent of Egypt’s population use the internet has become an important tool for Egyptian political activists as well as an alternative source for news that Egypt’s tightly controlled press is unwilling to publish.
While the Egyptian government does not block websites, rights groups say that security bodies target internet activists. There have also been several cases of individuals found guilty for libel about comments made online in cases brought by individuals or companies.
Rights group criticize these cases as violations of freedom of expression.
The Q&A Guide explains that there is no law regulating internet use in Egypt and that “this is something positive” because “whenever governments regulate any freedom they limit it.”
The Guide explains that public prosecution office permission is required to place emails under surveillance as they are categorized as correspondence under the law.
It explains that a company, or individuals from that company, found guilty of illegally using customers’ personal data or spying on an email account are liable to not less than three months imprisonment and a fine of LE 50,000 under Article 73 of the Telecommunications Law.
Individuals who publish letters or pictures without their owner’s consent may be prosecuted for invasion of privacy for at least a month imprisonment. Those who hand over the personal information may be imprisoned for five years.
The guide gives the example of a police officer who photographs someone and then gives the pictures to someone else to publish online.
One of the rare — and most high-profile — criminal convictions handed down against an Egyptian police officer for brutality was against a police officer filmed sodomizing a microbus driver, Emad El-Kebeer in a police station.
Publishing online news of violations or events concerning the public good is a “duty,” the Guide says, and internet users therefore have a right to publish comments about matters such as “sewage problems in the village of El-Badrsheen, the traffic problem in downtown Cairo, a torture case or a labor strike.”
The Guide’s section on website censorship explains that the Egyptian judiciary has still not reached a consensus about website censorship and to date no website has been censored via a judicial ruling.
Raouf says that in addition to being distributed online, the Q&A Guide will be printed and given to NGOs to hand out. Raouf added that a series of training sessions based on the Q&A will be held.
