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The Nigerian government has expressed reservations over the updated privacy policy of Whatsapp already in operation and has sought for further clarifications from Facebook, owners of the communication app.
According to a statement issued this week by the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, government has directed the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to engage Facebook to ensure that the new policy does not conflict with the provision of the Nigerian Data Protection Regulation (NDPR),
“The Federal Government released the Nigeria Data Protection Regulations (NDPR) in 2019 and is committed to upholding the data privacy of Nigerians.We are also aware that the European region is exempt from the provisions of the updated Policy and it is also being challenged in a number of countries,” said Technical Assistant (Information Technology) to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Femi Adeluyi in the statement.
Since it gave notice of its updated privacy policy for Whatsapp to become effective May 2021, Facebook has raised global concerns over its possible erasure of users’ privacy rights. But in the European Union (EU), the Internet giant is to operate within the confine of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR).
Like Nigeria, South Africa has raised similar concerns. According to Reuters, the Information Regulator had written to WhatsApp LLC requesting it to revise its privacy policy in South Africa to the standard used in the EU as the country’s Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) “has a privacy regime which is very similar to the EU regime.”
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Read the statement by Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy
The attention of the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, FNCS, FBCS, FIIM, has been brought to the updated Privacy Policy of the WhatsApp messaging application.
The Policy states that WhatsApp will share information about the users on their platform with their parent company (Facebook), as well as other Facebook companies. The information includes user phone numbers, “transaction data, service-related information, information on how you interact with others (including businesses) when using our Services, mobile device information, your IP address”.
Furthermore, WhatsApp has indicated that users who refuse to accept their revised privacy policy risk not being able to use the service at all.
The Federal Government released the Nigeria Data Protection Regulations (NDPR) in 2019 and is committed to upholding the data privacy of Nigerians. We are also aware that the European region is exempt from the provisions of the updated Policy and it is also being challenged in a number of countries.
The Honourable Minister has therefore directed the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), as the Regulator of the Information Technology sector, to engage vigorously with Facebook to understand the processes, level of security, etc of the data of Nigerian users in order to ensure that Policies proposed for Nigeria strictly adhere to the provisions of NDPR.
Nigerians can be assured that the Federal Government will give uttermost attention to the privacy of their data, in line with the NDPR and the National Digital Economy Policy for a Digital Nigeria.
