Data Protection In Nigeria By S.T. Afolabi Esq.
As of January 2018, over 100 countries around the world have enacted comprehensive data protection legislation, and around 40 countries are in the process of enacting such laws. Other countries may have privacy laws applying to certain areas, for example for children or financial records, but do not have a comprehensive law on data protection.
What is Data Protection?
Data protection is commonly defined as the law designed to protect your personal data. In modern societies, in order to empower us to control our data and to protect us from abuses, it is essential that data protection laws restrain and shape the activities of companies and governments. These institutions have shown repeatedly that unless rules restricting their actions are in place, they will endeavour to collect it all, mine it all, keep it all, share it with others, while telling us nothing at all.
Why is Data Protection Needed?
Every time you use a service, buy a product online, register for email, go to your doctor, pay your taxes, or enter into any contract or service request, you have to hand over some of your personal data. Even without your knowledge, data and information about you is being generated and captured by companies and agencies that you are likely to have never knowingly interacted with. The only way citizens and consumers can have confidence in both government and business is through strong data protection practices, with effective legislation to help minimise state and corporate surveillance and data exploitation.
Data Protection: Essential for Exercise of Right to Privacy
Privacy is an internationally recognised human right. Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) proclaims that
” [n]o one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence ….Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.”
The UDHR has formed the basis for the major international human rights treaties, which similarly enshrine the right to privacy, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in Article 17.
In Nigeria, The right to data protection is provided for under section 37 of the 1999 Constitution as amended which provides that,
“The privacy of citizens, their homes, correspondence, telephone conversations and telegraphic communications is hereby guaranteed and protected”.
Conclusion
It is your fundamental human right for your data to be protected, where there is any violation of such right, kindly seek legal means.
S.T. Afolabi Esq. Is a legal practitioner with penchant for Data protection law, Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution. Tell: +2348137377522. Email: samuelafolabi140@gmail.com.
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