No need to worry about snooping

        Imagine someone gaining access to your phone without your consent. This means they will get their eyes over your personal space. They will see your text messages, emails and photos among others.

This is all possible due to advancement in digital technology.

Unfair, right? ...Worry not. You can now prevent unauthorised access to your private information, thanks to a recently launched instant messaging service, Secure SmS, developed by 36-year-old Noel Kaaya, CEO and founder of Kaaya Computing Education and Research Network.

Through Secure SmS, one can send encrypted messages, which can only be decrypted by the intended recipient. Kaaya does not trust apps that promise end-to-end encryption since there is no way of telling the messages are encrypted for they get to the other end as clear messages (which can be read by anyone). He says his app provides security assurance as the message gets to the other end as an unclear text. This is so to prevent unauthorised access and only the intended person can read the coded message as they need a password to decode it. Apart from protecting your private texts from prying eyes, the App which took nine months to develop will enable users to enjoy chatting provided they have credit on their phones.

“You don’t need data to use Secure SmS. The app relieves users of the data burden. Not everyone can afford to have data all the time,” Kaaya says.

Secure SmS is a paid messaging app for Android phones with a great privacy box that protects personal chats and texts with five different local encryption algorithms.

“The messenger app can be your best privacy guard for it has a privacy box and both online and offline modes. There is no need to worry about snooping anymore! When using Secure SmS, you can choose any type of algorithm that you need to use to secure your communication and your designated private messages will be hidden forever. Nobody will find your messages, financial, business, and sensitive information,” says the father of three.

Affordable service

The app, acording to him gives you the freedom to choose different message themes. It also enables one to change texting background to any provided HD texting wallpaper background themes to make your mobile more attractive.

To keep your private information on your digital device secure, all you need to do is download the app from Google Play store and install it to your Android mobile phone. You only need Sh2,000 annually to activate subscription.

The idea to create the service followed President Magufuli’s call to local companies to target working with the community and not with the government.

“I realised privacy was a problem and came up with something to help protect people’s privacy. Every one needs privacy and that’s why we lock the door when we are in the toilet. We also don’t share everything with everyone but a select few,” says Kaaya.

He says technological advancement puts people’s privacy at risk as a lot of people are involved in our communication. Mobile operators, agencies, government, institutions and companies. Kaaya says his app provides 100 per cent user privacy on communication, both offline and online.

“Our clients are very happy so far because we have addressed a major problem, which is communication privacy and security. We work hard daily to improve our application to make sure our customers are happy and enjoy our product,” says a proud Kaaya.

It’s possible for one using the app to send messages to whatsApp and still be assured of security as the message gets to WhatsApp as an encrypted text that can only be read after it is decrypted.

Protection on both ends

“We protect your messages from sending point to receiving point,” says the Diploma holder in Computer Science from the University of Dar Es Salaam.

Kaaya started his computing career as a freelance computer maintenance and repair technician in 2007. Things did not go as he had envisaged and so he decided to look for a job. He luckily got one as a computer teacher at Green Acres Secondary Schools in 2009.

“After one year I joined my uncle’s computer programming company so that I could learn more. I worked as a customer support for one year, then as a website developer. It was while working at this company that I developed an interest in self-employment.”

Kaaya needed money for capital so he joined Women’s Dignity as head of the ICT Department. He left the organisation after he saved enough to start his own company.

He established a website development and hosting company and started by developing a small hospital management system, which he named 4Pay HMIS. He managed to have Tumbi regional referral hospital in Kibaha, Coast Region, on his client list, a feat that marked the beginning of his success. He installed the system to more than 35 government hospitals in Morogoro, Mbeya, Singida, Dodoma and Tanga regions.

4Pay HMIS is a system support responding to facility needs, which is used to manage a hospital’s daily operations. The system monitors cash collection, reduces work burden, increases efficiency and effective service performance and data handling. It is locally generated and customised to suit local needs and is cost efficiency in terms of operations. The system is currently used in all government hospitals and has since had its name changed to Government of Tanzania Hospital Management Information System (GoT HoMIS).

“Today I have a team of nine employees, four of them programmers. We have several projects in web application and mobile technology for different clients,” shares Kaaya. He believes there is a lot of potential in computer and mobile phone technology and challenges the youth to grab the opportunity to solve social problems and earn a living too.

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