The Nigerian Information and Technology Development Agency, NITDA, says it has commenced an investigation into a potential breach of privacy of Nigerians by the Truecaller service.
The Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, on Monday in a statement, said findings on the Truecaller Privacy Policy revealed that the policy falls short of global data protection laws and the Nigerian Data Protection Regulation, NDPR.
According to him, there are over seven million Nigerians using Truecaller service.
Mr Inuwa, however, lamented that Truecaller APP could supplement the information provided by the service user with information from third parties and add it to the information provided by the user.
This provision, according to him, contravenes “Article 2.1(b) of the NDPR which requires data collection and processing to be accurate and Article 1.3(iii) which requires that valid consent must be specific.”
The DG noted that this policy had paved way for unscrupulous persons to use Nigerian identities to perpetrate fraud, “since it supplements personal information of Nigerians without specific consent and accuracy.”
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Speaking further, Mr Inuwa said Article 1.2 of the Truecaller policy states that when the service user installs the services, Truecaller would collect personal information from the user and any device the user may use in their interaction with the service.
The information, according to Mr Inuwa, include: geo-location, IP address, device ID, SIM card usage, default communication application, access to device address book, device log and event information, Meta data of incoming and outgoing calls and messages.
According to the DG, the numerous personal information accessed by the Truecaller Service is clearly excessive and invasive of the privacy of its users.
He, however, urged all users of the Service to take advantage of Article 4 of the Truecaller Privacy Policy which states that, “if any persons do not wish to have their names and phone numbers made available through the Enhanced Search or Name Search functionalities, they can exclude themselves from further queries by notifying Truecaller via its website at www.trucaller.com or set forth in the contact details below or better yet delist themselves from the Service completely.”
Mr Inuwa, therefore, assured that NITDA would continue to monitor activities of digital service providers with a view to ensuring that the rights of Nigerians are not unduly breached.
