Paradigm Initiative has urged Data Protection Authorities in Africa (DPAs) to make information on their activities readily available.
In a new report, titled, Establishment, Independence, Impartiality and Efficiency of Data Protection Supervisory Authorities in the Two Decades of their Existence on the Continent, the organisation said the activities of African DPAs had been shrouded in secrecy unlike their European counterparts.
DPAs are independent public authorities that supervise the application of the data protection law, handle data breach reports and protect the fundamental rights of people.
‘In many countries across the world, DPAs’ investigative activities and attendant decisions are not shrouded in secrecy as the reports are publicly available and accessible’, it noted.
‘However, this cannot be said of DPAs in African countries as most of them have made information about their activities elusive.
‘With the exception of a very few countries, DPAs in Africa are seen to have been technically subdued by their appointors or silenced by their innate infrastructural inhibitions, with the attendant effect of stunted growth of data protection laws and enforcement on the continent’.
The report noted that 32 African countries, including Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya and Lesotho, had enacted a form of data protection legislation.
While Botswana, Congo Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Algeria, Madagascar, Mauritania, Seychelles, Togo, Uganda and Zambia are yet to establish a DPA.
The report said Nigeria did not have a data protection law but a Nigeria Data Protection Regulation in 2019 (NDPR) predominantly governs data protection in Africa’s most populous nation.
It also documented how the Ivory Coast DPA responded to a complaint by an Ivorian about the publication of his personal data on social networks by the Sunset Hotel in Yopougon.
‘A warning and a formal notice [was issued] to Sunset Hotel to delete the subject’s personal data from its website and that of its subcontractors within one month’, the report said.
Paradigm Initiative called on African DPAs to be more transparent with their investigations and decision making.
Source: Paradigm Initiative
Photo source: Borgen Project
