Tuesday, 27 September 2016

WHY WE NEED DATA PROTECTION IN NIGERIA


Citizens data in Nigeria seem to be up for free trade and collection by various public and private agencies. Agencies like INEC, FRSC, NIMC and even Telcos routinely collect  citizen's data without any real commitment from protecting our rights to privacy of our data or the protection and security of the data. Recently there are claims that INEC transferred very critical voter's information to a group www.voters.ng without the consent of Nigerians or in accordance with international best practice. Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN), a CSO and social enterprise, recently wrote a letter to INEC demanding details of this data transfer.



To some Nigerians, this may not be a big deal when there are more 'important' things to think about like the proposed sale of government assets or the fact that a bag of rice is about N 20,000. However, when you think of the fact that in this global economy and highly digitised world, people profit of other people's data whether used legally or illegally. Data or information is now the new currency. Just think about how Facebook makes its money, and how hackers operate and you will understand what i mean. Or those cold calls and unwanted messages and mails you get about products you did  not register for or are not interested in. Ever wonder how some of them get your data?

 In this vein, there should a data privacy and protection laws as found in other parts of the world like Europe and the US which understand the importance of protecting citizen's data. The Nigerian Digital Rights and Freedom Bill which is currently before the National Assembly should be speedily passed. Data collected by one organisation under the trust of the people needs to be protected in order to prevent hacking, espionage, global terrorism, discrimination or even unnecessary profiteering.

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