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The Child Cyber Protection (CC-Pro) organisation has hosted a webinar to mark the National Privacy Week with the theme: ‘Surf Safe – Data Privacy is Your Right.’ Held as part of its activities for the Privacy Week, the webinar focused on creating privacy awareness among young people, particularly in secondary schools.
From Monday January 25th, the Nigerian government IT regulator and clearinghouse, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) had unrolled series of activities to mark the National Privacy Week. All activities will peak today, Thursday January 28th: the World Privacy Day with a commemorative speech expected from the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Ali Pantami.
Part of the objectives of the Privacy Week is to make citizens aware of their data privacy rights and also provide critical information on the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR, 2019) as it affects all sectors within the public and private sectors.
“We joined the NITDA to observe the Data Privacy Week with two activities: a live session with some secondary school students at Sureq Model school, Jos to share experiences around data privacy and a webinar involving experts to highlight the significance of the week,” said CEO and Co-Founder of CC-Pro, Delmwa Gogwim.
This year, NITDA chose ‘Harnessing data as a critical asset in the digital economy’, as the major theme for the week-long celebration to raise awareness on data assets, security and privacy.
“The live session gave the students the opportunity to share their internet experiences with cyber criminals and other online abusers. One of the students shared how a lady invited him to join a group on Facebook and as the group admin she demanded for his full name, password and other details to join the group which he refused,” added Gogwim.
“There are consequences for information shared whether digitally or through traditional means. Be vigilant so you don’t become a tool for perpetrating evils or breaches,” said legal practitioner Barrister Yakubu S. Bawa who further advised the students to never be in a hurry to share information about themselves. He cautioned the students against sharing almost everything about themselves on the internet as it is not safe.
Head of Project Management, Plateau Information and Communication Technology Development Agency (PICTDA), Winifred Wang told the audience that data privacy is everyone’s business and people should learn not only to respect others privacy but also to be mindful of diligently protecting their personal data.
Mindful of how critical young people are in the awareness campaign on data privacy, part of the activities for the National Privacy week also included a virtual class for secondary school students on Online Privacy Protection. Jos based CC-Pro had, as part of its own activities, mobilised the local audience to join the national discussion targeting online privacy protection.
Nigeria officially joined the rest of the world last year January to celebrate the World Privacy Day. According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, “Data Privacy Day is an international event that occurs every year on 28 January. The purpose of Data Privacy Day is to raise awareness and promote privacy and data protection best practices across the world.
Since its establishment, the CC-Pro has initiated a number of programmes to educate on the benefits and dangers of the internet. It recently held a forum on exposure of young people to sexual predators online. The CC-Pro campaigns focus on young people vulnerable to cyber influence.
