AKIPRESS.COM - Kazakhstan's drive to obtain government access to everyone's internet activity has raised concerns among privacy advocates, BBC reports.

Last week, telecoms operators in the former Soviet republic started informing users of the "need" to install a new security certificate.

Doing so opens up the risk that supposedly secure web traffic could be decrypted and analysed.

Some users say the move has significant privacy and security problems.

Much of the concern focuses on Kazakhstan's human rights record, which is considered poor by international standards.

Human Rights Watch says authorities do not allow peaceful protests, clamp down on trade unions, and use criminal prosecutions against journalists and opposition politicians with little cause.

Kazakh internet users reported being redirected to web pages telling them to install the new certificate on their home and mobile devices and some received text messages telling them to do so.

A statement from the Ministry of Digital Development said telecoms operators in the capital, Nur-Sultan, were carrying out technical work to "enhance protection" from hackers, online fraud and other cyber-attacks.

It advised anyone who had trouble connecting to some websites to install the new security certificate, from an organisation called Quaznet Trust Network.

Kcell, one of the large communications providers, said that not having the certificate could cause problems accessing some internet resources.