REGULATING UBER, ONLINE PRIVACY: The House of Representatives’ ICT Committee is planning to draft legislation to regulate car-hailing apps including Uber and Careen, said the committee’s chair May El Batran, Al Borsa reports. She proudly and shamelessly takes credit for getting ride-sharing apps to incorporate taxi drivers into their business model. The committee’s agenda also includes plans to draft a data security law — not to protect citizens’ privacy, it seems, but to spur the creation of new businesses working in that particular field. The committee is also working with the ICT Minister on amendments to the Telecommunications Act, she said, stopping short of saying what those might be.

Meanwhile, President Abdelfattah El Sisi has officially signed into law the Taxation Disputes Resolution Act, which aims to expedite the settlement of tax disputes with the government, Al Shorouk reports. As we noted earlier this month, Finance Minister Amr El Garhy had stated that the law will only be in effect for one year, meaning it’s a one-time bid to break the backlog of cases and not a permanent measure. El Sisi also signed into law the bill that would impose lengthier sentences for involvement in FGM cases, the newspaper reports. Parliament had approved the decree designating FGM a felony and raising the penalty up to 15 years or a life sentence (in some cases) in late August. El Sisi also ratified the controversial Church Construction Act, which restricts the size of churches to a proportion of a district’s Christian population.