As Whatsapp’s data privacy policy becomes “questionable,” the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has proposed plans to pitch alternative social media networks for Nigeria.
Since Facebook purchased Whatsapp in February 2014, according to NITDA’s head of corporate affairs and external relations, Mrs. Hadiza Umar, On the 4th of January 2021, Whatsapp released a revised Privacy Policy, alerting its customers outside of the European Union that it will henceforth share their data with Facebook and its sister firms.
As a result, Whatsapp gathers the following data from users: account information; messages (including undelivered messages and media forwarding); connections; status information; transactions and payments data; usage and log data; device and connection information; location information; cookies, and so on.
Battery level; signal strength; app version; browser information; mobile network; connection information (including phone number, mobile operator, or ISP), language and time zone; Internet Protocol address; device operations information; and social media identifiers are among the other types of data gathered by Whatsapp.
“Under Section 6(f) of the NITDA Act 2007, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) desires to give this advisory to Nigerians in order to address Nigerian concerns about changes to the Whatsapp Terms of Service and Privacy Policy that took effect on May 15, 2021.
Whatsapp is used by millions of Nigerians for commercial, social, educational, and other purposes. For many Nigerians, the platform is their preferred social media site.
On April 9th, 2021, NITDA, in partnership with the African Network of Data Protection Authorities, engaged Facebook Incorporated, the owners of the Whatsapp network, specifically its worldwide Policy executives, to better understand the issues and provide them an opportunity to defend their positions.
According to Blueprint, NITDA, as Nigeria’s data privacy authority, intends to advise Nigerians on how Facebook’s business choice affects their privacy rights following the engagement.
As a result of the preceding, NITDA recommends that Nigerians take note that there are alternative available platforms with similar functionalities that they may want to investigate. Data sharing practices, privacy, and simplicity of use should all be considered when selecting a platform; and limit the sharing of sensitive personal data on private messaging and social media platforms, as the initial promise of privacy and security is now being trumped by corporate imperatives.
”Nigeria is still interacting with Facebook. We’ve shared our thoughts on how the NDPR may be improved. We’ve also expressed our dissatisfaction with the significant disparity in privacy standards between Europe and the rest of the globe under the GDPR.
Given the aforementioned and other rising challenges surrounding overseas technology businesses, NITDA is investigating all alternatives with stakeholders to ensure that Nigerians are not victims of digital colonialism.
National security, dignity, and individual privacy are valued factors that must not be compromised. As a result, we will collaborate with the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy to host a hackathon for Nigerians to present concepts that would give functional alternatives to existing global social platforms,” according to the statement.
“Facebook has over 2.5 billion global users, while Whatsapp has over 2 billion,” the statement continued.“ As part of the Facebook Companies, WhatsApp receives information from, and shares information with, the other Facebook Companies,” the new policy states. We and they may share information to help us operate, provide, improve, understand, customize, support, and promote our Services and offers, including the Facebook Company Products…”
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