In honor of the annual Data Privacy Day on January 28, Media Rights Agenda (MRA) today launched a sensitization film and urged all Nigerians to take the necessary precautions to protect their privacy while educating themselves about the significance of data privacy.
The three-and-a-half-minute-long animated video, which is available for viewing at https://youtu.be/PVQfo1ZfLdY, explains the origin of the Day, its importance, why it concerns everyone, and appropriate measures that members of the public can take to protect their data and privacy.
In a statement issued in Lagos, Mr. John Gbadamosi, MRA’s Programme Officer, said: “We are pleased to join the rest of the world today to commemorate this year’s Data Privacy Day. We consider it to be a significant occasion because poor data privacy habits and practices can be catastrophic for individuals and their organizations as these can result in identity theft, enable fraud, and cyberattacks, and cause damage to personal and corporate reputations, among many other potential harms.”
Data Privacy Day, which is known as Data Protection Day in Europe, is celebrated every January 28 and derives from the 1981 Convention 108 – the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, the first legally binding international instrument in the field of data protection, which opened for signature on January 28, 1981.
Mr. Gbadamosi noted that in the digital age, it is crucial for everyone to understand the value of their personal information and how to protect it and urged “everyone to take the time to review and update their privacy settings on their devices, treat suspicious emails or messages with suspicion and caution, and be slow to share personal information online.”
He reminded organizations, particularly data collectors and controllers, of their responsibility to protect the personal information of their customers, partners, and employees.
Mr. Gbadamosi called on everyone to work together to make data privacy a priority and ensure protection against potential breaches and cyber-attacks, saying that in addition to adopting good data privacy practices, they can also advocate for effective data protection laws and policies to protect themselves and their personal information.