Nigeria investigates Swedish call blocking app for privacy breach
According to Business Insider, the Nigerian National Information Technology Agency (NITDA) has commenced an investigation into an alleged breach of privacy rights of Nigerians by Truecaller, a Sweden-based phone number identification app. The Nigerian agency claims that Truecaller’s privacy policy contains “illegitimate provisions” that contravene Nigeria’s Data Protection Regulation (NDPR). According to Quartz Africa, Truecaller, which helps users identify names of callers with unsaved numbers, has garnered 2.9 million active users in Nigeria, and led the Stockholm-headquartered app to aggregate a database of contact details from millions of users raising questions about its methods. This investigation also brings to the spotlight on the fact that the NDPR has not been passed as a bill through Nigeria’s national assembly yet.
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