Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, NFCCPC, had imposed a $220 million fine on WhatsApp. This is for a data privacy breach. The company may suspend its operations in the country due to further regulatory demands. This is after one week of being fined.
It has been gathered that Meta, WhatsApp’s parent company, is thinking of withdrawing certain services from Nigeria.
With the substantial fine, the FCCPC has directed WhatsApp to stop sharing user data. With other Facebook companies and third parties without the user consent.
The commission also asked WhatsApp to disclose details about its data collection practices and to enhance user control over data usage.
A WhatsApp spokesperson emailed TechCabal, that: “We want to be clear that, technically, based on the order, it would be impossible to provide WhatsApp in Nigeria or globally.”
The spokesperson criticized the FCCPC’s order as flawed. Saying that it inaccurately portrays WhatsApp’s data handling. And they would do notable changes to the platform’s infrastructure.
Meta has not addressed the FCCPC’s allegations regarding user opt-out options from the 2021 privacy policy. But they maintains that the update does not involve sharing user data.
The company’s privacy policy states, “While traditionally mobile carriers and operators store this information. We believe that keeping these records for two billion users would be both a privacy and security risk and we don’t do it.”
The suspension of WhatsApp could have notable consequences for individuals and small businesses in Nigeria. Of which many rely on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook for customer engagement.
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