Kenyan telecommunications operator, Safaricom, is facing just over a $1 trillion lawsuit for allegedly violating the data privacy of 11.5 million consumers. 

According to The Standard, a case filed at the High Court details how one of the company’s subscribers, Benedict Kabugi, accused Safaricom of breaching private data. This comes after Kabugi was approached by a person who was in possession of all 11.5 million consumers data. 

The data breached contained specific details —  full names, mobile phone numbers, gender, age, identity numbers, passport numbers, as well as the total amounts gambled — of consumers who used Safaricom cellphone numbers to gamble on a number of betting platforms in Kenya. 

Kabugi wants Safaricom to compensate each of the affected 11.5 consumers. He adds that ‘the charging of two [Safaricom] employees was confirmation that Safaricom data was accessed, messed and interfered with’.

Telecompaper reports this as ‘the first time a lawsuit of this magnitude has been levelled against a mobile service provider in Kenya’.