The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami has 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.
This directive is aimed at ensuring that policies proposed for Nigeria strictly adhere to the provisions of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulations (NDPR).
The directive, DigitalTimesNG understands, comes on the heels of the recent announcement by WhatsApp of the updated Privacy Policy of its 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.”
WhatsApp further indicated that users who refuse to accept their revised privacy policy risk not being able to use the service at all.
Recall that the Federal Government released the Nigeria Data Protection Regulations (NDPR) in 2019 when it expressed commitment to upholding the data privacy of Nigerians.
“We are also aware that the European region is exempted from the provisions of the updated Policy and it is also being challenged in a number of countries,” said Dr. Femi Adeluyi, Technical Assistant (Information Technology) to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, in a statement.
Adeluyi assured Nigerians that the Federal Government will give utmost attention to the privacy of their data, in line with the NDPR and the National Digital Economy Policy for a Digital Nigeria.
