Nigeria’s consumer protection body, last week, placed a $220 million fine on Meta (WhatsApp) for data privacy violations. Meta has since rejected the decision.
What Meta did wrong: At the heart of the matter was an investigation into WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy in 2021. There were claims that WhatsApp wasn’t giving users a say on how their data was collected and used
Yesterday, the FCCPC released a 116-page document explaining its charges against Meta. We know you don’t have the time to read all of that so we did it for you.
The regulator claimed WhatsApp did not allow users to opt out of the 2021 policy. The FCCPC also found that an early version of WhatsApp policy mandated users to either accept the policy or be kicked off the platform.
ALSO READ Meta’ll appeal $220m fine by FCCPC – WhatsApp
“The 2021 update was sent to users through frequent pop-ups asking them to accept the privacy policy. While there was an arrow that allowed users to dismiss the pop-up, they could not opt-out or reject the update. If users refused to update their apps, the pop-ups became more frequent, and many users lost the ability to read or respond to chats,” writes Muktar.
The regulator deemed this move by WhatsApp—which has a 65% market share in Nigeria—as anti-competitive.
Meta is treating Nigerians differently: The regulator also found that WhatsApp presented Nigerian users with a different privacy policy from European users. While the 2021 privacy policy update meant that users’ data could be shared with third parties, WhatsApp did not require third parties to obtain user consent before accessing shared user data.
If you had given the FCCPC a flack over the issue, you might want to reconsider your stance. While you’re at it, we’ll wait for Meta’s appeal of the FCCPC’s decision.
