The newly updated Privacy Policy by social media giant, Facebook, on its Whatsapp messaging application has drawn the attention of the federal government.
A statement from the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy (MoCDE) says that the Minister, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, has taken interest in the fallout of the Policy update which states that WhatsApp will share information about the users on their platform with their parent company (Facebook), as well as other Facebook affiliate companies.
The information to be shared, according to the Policy include “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 Minister therefore directed the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), as the Regulator of the Information Technology sector, to engage vigorously with Facebook to among other things, understand the processes and level of security of the data of Nigerian users in order to ensure that Policies proposed for Nigeria strictly adhere to the provisions of Nigeria Data Protection Regulations (NDPR).
“The Federal Government released the 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 statement from the Minister noted.
Dr. Pantami assured Nigerians 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.
