The federal government has expressed grave concerns over WhatsApp’s recently updated privacy policy which threatens Nigerian users, who fail to agree to it sharing users data information with Facebook and all Facebook affiliates, risking not being able to use the service at all.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami expressed the concerns yesterday in a release signed by Femi Adeluyi, Technical Assistant for Information Technology to the Minister.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the updated privacy policy of the messaging app owned by Facebook states that WhatsApp will share information about the users of the app with its 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 utmost attention to the privacy of their data, in line with the NDPR and the National Digital Economy Policy for a Digital Nigeria,” the statement reads.