The Federal Government has expressed reservations about the updated Privacy Policy of WhatsApp, and has therefore decided to engage vigorously with Facebook, the parent company of the popular messaging application, on it.
A statement issued on Saturday and made available to The Lagos Times, said the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami was worried about the security of the data of Nigerian users of WhatsApp.
The statement, issued Dr. Femi Adeluyi, Technical Assistant (Information Technology) to the Minister stated that the 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
According to the statement, the new “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 Minister 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.
