The National Information Technology Agency (NITDA) says it is
investigating Truecaller for a potential breach of the privacy of
Nigerians.
In a statement released on Monday, Kashifu Abdullahi Inuwa,
NITDA’s director-general, said the agency’s initial findings have
shown that Truecaller’s privacy policy is not in compliance with
global laws on data protection and the Nigeria Data Protection
Regulation.
Truecaller is a caller identity and spam blocking
application.
The agency said provisions of Truecaller’s policy could be
exploited “to put many Nigerians in unsavoury conditions”.
Listing some portions of the privacy policy, NITDA said
Truecaller collects more information than it needs for its primary
service and shares personal information collected with third
parties without stating the possible third party and for what
purpose.
“In view of this, we urge all Nigerians to take advantage of
Article 4 of the Truecaller Privacy Policy which provides – “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.truecaller.com or as
set forth in the contact details…”
The agency said members of the public could also choose to
delist themselves from the Truecaller service completely.
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