The Digital Surveillance Confession - Editorial@ITREALMS

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The airwaves crackled with a chilling nonchalance on Friday, February 13, 2026, as former Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, admitted on Arise News to a high-level breach of privacy that strikes at the heart of the Nigerian state.

By claiming to have "listened in" on the private conversations of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, El-Rufai did more than just settle a political score following his airport confrontation; he handed over what presidency officials have rightly termed a "confession of wiretapping."

Mozilla campaign leads to Meta implementing privacy protections - ITREALMS

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A recent campaign by Mozilla has led to Meta implementing crucial privacy protections for users of its Artificial Intelligence (AI) chat feature, reports ITREALMS.

The protections, ITREALMS gathered, were put in place after Mozilla sounded the alarm about the "Discover Feed," a public stream where personal AI-generated conversations were being shared without users' knowledge or consent.

Privacy right: Court orders UBA to pay customer N8m for gross violation - ITREALMS

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The United Bank of Africa (UBA) Plc in Nigeria has been ordered to pay its customer N8,000,000 only for gross violation of her right to data privacy in a matter funded by Paradigm Initiative (PIN) through its digital rights reporting platform Ripoti, reports ITREALMS.

The bank was found liable for unilaterally opening a domiciliary account for Miss Folashade Molehin without her consent, breaching her right to data privacy.

Nigerian business leaders, Google meet over competitive edge in privacy-first era - ITREALMS

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Leading companies from Nigeria joined Google West Africa at a roundtable to discuss the shift towards privacy-first marketing as third-party cookies are phased out. The forum brought together leaders from FairMoney, Konga, Mondelez, Stanbic IBTC, and Zenith Bank, highlighting a collective commitment to redefining consumer engagement in the digital age.

Businesses recognize that building consumer trust is essential in a world that increasingly values privacy. In this new era, adapting marketing strategies to be more privacy-focused is not just a necessity but a strategic move towards building sustainable customer relations.

DPD 2023: Paradigm Initiative urges stakeholders to observe privacy best practices - ITREALMS

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Leading pan African Digital Rights and inclusion organization, the Paradigm Initiative (PIN) has urged individuals and civil society entities, to continue to hold to account all actors to ensure best practices are adopted, and privacy as a right is protected.

PIN made the call as it joined countries across the world in commemorating World Data Protection and Privacy Day.

MRA releases video to mark 2023 Data Privacy Day - ITREALMS

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The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) today released a sensitisation video to commemorate the global Data Privacy Day, which is celebrated yearly on January 28, and called on all Nigerians to educate themselves about the importance of data privacy while taking appropriate steps to safeguard their 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, cyberattacks, cause damage to personal and corporate reputations, among many other potential harms.”

Privacy: NCC-CSIRT flags ‘HiddenAds’ malware - ITREALMS

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The Nigerian Communications Commission's Computer Security Incident Response Team (NCC-CSIRT) has flagged a new malware, HiddenAds, which has infiltrated Google Play Store that can impact device performance and jeopardize users’ privacy.

In its advisory of August 8, 2022, NCC-CSIRT classified the virus, first identified by the McAfee Mobile Research Team, as high in probability and damage potential.

Stakeholders consent to privacy law for Nigeria - ITREALMS

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…As World Bank Tasks FG on Data Protection

No fewer than two hundred and fifty stakeholders, Wednesday, unanimously gave their nod to the steps towards enacting a principal Data Protection law for Nigeria.

Rising from a two-day Policy Dialogue on Nigeria’s Data Protection law, held in Abuja, the participants were of the view that a data protection law for the country was long overdue.

Raise of AI, Intel targets legislators’ dialogue on data privacy - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The Intel Corporation has released model legislation designed to inform policymakers and spur dialogue on personal data privacy, reports ITREALMS.

Prompted by the rapid rise of new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), Intel’s model bill is open for review and comment from privacy experts and the public on an interactive website. The bill’s language and comments received should provide useful insight for those interested in meaningful data privacy legislation.

“The collection of personal information is a growing concern. The US needs a privacy law that both protects consumer privacy and creates a framework in which important new industries can prosper. Our model bill is designed to spur discussion that helps inspire meaningful privacy legislation,” says David Hoffman, Intel associate general counsel and global privacy officer.

On why privacy matters, he said data are the lifeblood for many critical new industries, including precision medicine, automated driving, workplace safety, smart cities and others.

“But the growing amount of personal data collected, sometimes without consumers’ awareness, raises serious privacy concerns,” he said.

People need assurances that information that is shared – both knowingly and unknowingly – will be used in beneficial, responsible ways, and that they will be appropriately protected. The U.S. needs a comprehensive federal law to create the framework in which companies can demonstrate responsible behavior.

ITREALMS reports that this Intel’s model data privacy bill aims to bring together policymakers and others in a transparent and open process that helps drive the development of actual data privacy legislation. Intel has launched a website where interested parties can review and comment on the model bill. Company leaders believe input will help to promote the development of constructive data privacy legislation in Congress.

Also, ITREALMS notes that privacy is an important and ongoing issue in our data-centric world. In a white paper published last month, Intel’s Global Privacy team laid out six policy principles for safety and privacy in the age of AI, one of the technical domains that has significant privacy implications.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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Samsung confirms ‘smart TV’ listens to customers, warns on privacy

ITRealms:

Samsung Electronic has confirmed that its 'smart TV' sets are listening to customers' every word, and the company has warned customers not to speak about personal information while near the TV sets, reports ITRealms.

The company revealed that the voice activation feature on its smart TVs will capture all nearby conversations. The TV sets can share the information, including sensitive data, with Samsung as well as third-party services.

The news comes after Shane Harris at The Daily Beast pointed out a troubling line in Samsung's privacy policy: "Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party."

Samsung has now issued a new statement clarifying how the voice activation feature works. "If a consumer consents and uses the voice recognition feature, voice data is provided to a third party during a requested voice command search," Samsung said in a statement. "At that time, the voice data is sent to a server, which searches for the requested content then returns the desired content to the TV."

The company added that it does not retain or sell the voice data, but it didn't name the third party that translates users' speech.

Samsung, however, insisted that customers about discussing personal information in front of their smart television set should desist.

ITRealms gathered that the warning applies to TV viewers who control their Samsung Smart TV using its voice activation feature.

"When the feature is active, such TV sets "listen" to what is said and may share what they hear with Samsung or third parties," official of Samsung confirmed, revealing that the third party in question is Nuance Communications Inc.

*Correspondent with additional reports from BBC.com

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Different shapes of Cloud hinges on trust by Antony Cook

ITRealms:

The Assistant General Counsel, Microsoft Middle East and Africa, Antony Cook, who dwelt on Cloud Computing: Privacy and Security, asserting that trust is the key to cloud services, at an event in Lagos, reports ITRealms.

And for Cook, the numbers matters so much, stating that mobility checks has seen 1.1 billion global smartphone subscribers, yet 5 billion non-smartphone users still exist globally.

Cook also said that on mobility, there are over a billion users, Facebook users are now in the hands of 680 million mobile, just as 175 million tweets are generated daily.

On the big data, Cook pointed out that there was 2.4 billion global internet users in 2012, whereas total amount of digital information in the world is increasing 10x every 5 years, with the Cloud being the enabling force for all these trends.

Thus, for Cook, clouds come in different shapes, namely the public, private and public cum private clouds.

For the public clouds, Cook said this manages data centers by service provides within agile, cost effective and scalable.

Private clouds, the counsel said is on-premises or hosted by a third party which could be more secured, more customizable, greater control and more overhead.

Accordingly, the AGM at Microsoft says that public and private clouds has reputed for optimal mix of cost and control, while agile, scalable, more secure and cost effectiveness could be outlined as seeming advantages.

Some key benefits of the cloud include cost savings, security and performance.

Precisely, Antony said that for the cost savings, cloud services provide cost savings without compromising on quality.

On the security benefit, Antony said experience and scale enabled cloud service providers are known to offer more robust security.

Even as the performance gains involve cloud services which enable customers to innovate and operate at a faster pace.

However, across security, privacy and compliance, he pointed out that trust is key, stressing that people would like to know how safe are their data in the cloud, where will my data be stored and who can access it for  hat purposes, whilst on compliance, customers will like to know if the cloud will increase their regulatory risk?

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