New research - Telecoms, Ubiquitous Surveillance and State Crime: A Case Study From Kenya - has revealed that mobile networks can generate an extraordinarily detailed picture of where you go, who you communicate with and the patterns of your life. And most of us cannot simply opt out. This means your phone does not have to be hacked for you to be watched.
The public debate and efforts by human rights advocates have focused heavily on spyware. But you don't necessarily need spyware to track someone, the report shows. Telecom network data can already enable historical tracking, live tracing and analysis of relationships between people.
The report concludes that: "Choosing to opt-out is far from easy as peaceful protest in Kenya is often being met with brutal state repression and violence. So, it is worth recognising that – when done en masse – a Kenyan’s decision to port their number over from Safaricom to a rival telecoms company, may be one of the simplest yet profound acts that can be done in the service of the nation."
Read he report here:
On November 27, 2026, Namir Shabibi who conducted this research will present the findings at the Disruption Network Institute’s conference, “TESTING GROUNDS: The Kill Cloud, AI & Migration Control” in Berlin, hosted by Disruption Network Lab. More about the conference here.
Publishing Partner: Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC)
Reviewer: Ernest Cornel Oduor (Senior Communications Officer, KHRC)
