Stir The Pot:By Paidamoyo Muzulu BIG brother — the proverbial all-powerful State system that hears and sees everything — was a scary proposition. It could even police thoughts and privacy had been done away with forever. This scary scenario is painted in George Orwell’s futuristic novel, 1984. The book was ahead of its time, but Orwell was correct — the State wanted total control of its subjects, even thoughts in private moments. Orwell’s book details a scenario that United States National Security Agency consultant Edward Snowden revealed in his exposé — PRISM — a project where all the United States big tech and mobile communications companies are connected to a State-controlled super computer for surveillance purposes. Snowden revealed that the PRISM project was designed that it could listen to all telephone calls that started, were routed or terminated in the United States. Not only could the system listen to calls, it could also snoop into your e-mails and all online conversations on social media platforms. My thoughts to write this piece were triggered by three separate and somewhat unrelated events that happened in the past 10 days. These include the salacious details about Vice-President Kembo Mohadi’s alleged office shenanigans with married subordinates, the High Court ruling that Econet cannot send unsolicited messages to its clients and this week’s official opening of the National Data Centre by President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Manhood and sexual encounters are private things. Zimbabweans on social media were struck by the fact that the big man needed two — two full cups — of sex-enhancing boosters to make him crank. The people were exposed to the facts that offices can be love nests and security details do not offer security to their principals alone. Mohadi this week broke the silence and held a Press conference at his offices. He denied that it was him in the audio recordings leaked to the media. He said two contradictory things: his phone was hacked and his voice was morphed. A mobile device being hacked is a security breach. If true, it means the hacker has more than audio recordings of the VP’s philandering. The High Court interim judgment that unsolicited text messages Econet was sending its client was illegal has far-reaching consequences. Econet has a trove of individual citizen data that could be rivalled only by the State. It knows not only people’s identity numbers, addresses, movements, communications, banking details, social likes but also personal health. Econet has in the past sold this data to third parties. In the present case, it sold or donated the data with the Civil Protection Unit to broadcast messages on COVID-19 statistics. During the 2018 general elections, it sold the same data to Zanu PF. Econet subscribers received text messages soliciting for their votes from the ruling party. The third and final incident was the official opening of the National Data Centre. This new institution will be a one-stop centre for all government data. The centre will be used for sharing critical data b
