Truecaller to Comply With the Protection of 7m Nigerian Users – NITDA
http://www.hrlnews.com/2019/10/truecaller-to-comply-with-protection-of.html
Mr Kashifu Inuwa, the Director General of the National Information
Technology Development Agency (NITDA) says Truecaller will harmonise
its operations to suit the Nigerian Data Protection Regulation (NDPR).
Inuwa said this at the ongoing 39TH Gulf Information Technology
Exhibition (GITEX), a global technology exhibition that gathers over
200,000 Information Technology interests, 145 countries on advancing
technology.
The director general said this following the investigation he
recalled the agency started on Truecaller’s privacy data breach on some
unsuspecting Nigerians.
He recalled that the Truecaller Privacy Policy (TPP) is against
global laws on data protection and the Nigerian Data Protection
Regulation (NDPR) requires data collection, processing accuracy,
specific consent validity and other necessities.
According to him, the initial investigation reveals that over seven
million Nigerians are active users of the Truecaller service, hence the
need to create awareness on that.
He said “on investigating the Truecaller compromise on data of some Nigerians, we have gone far on that.
“They (Truecaller) have written to us to find ways to harmonise
operations to comply with the Nigerian Data Protection Regulation.”
He added that the TPP content comprises of two categories and have
different policies for those residing in the European Economic Area
(EEA) and those outside the EEA, noting that Nigerians should be aware
of the category they belong.
The NITDA boss said citizens could find necessary information on Truecaller operations on its website — www.truecaller.com.
On the participation of Nigerian start-ups at GITEX, he said that the
young innovators had global innovative ideas but needed an enabling
environment and the right mentorship to achieve their goals.
He explained that over time, government had put in a lot of work in
trying to boost local content, adding that the effort was yielding
results and making the IT sector to contribute majorly to economic
growth.
He said “a lot of start-ups are coming up in the country and this
shows that government’s effort toward building the ICT sector is
yielding results.
“Before, oil was the major contributor to our Gross Domestic Product
but now, ICT has taken over; ICT contributes almost 13.6 per cent to our
GDP, while oil contribute only about 8 per cent.
“Job
opportunities lie so much in ICT; it is just for us to find out the
right potential within our environment and develop it,” Inuwa stressed.
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