Broadcasting
The Growing Importance of Privacy Amongst Customers and How Businesses Should Cater to it
By Kehinde Ogundare, Country Manager, Zoho Nigeria | Veerakumar Natarajan, Country Head – Kenya, Zoho Corp
Privacy is a growing concern for technology consumers worldwide. While there was a time when that may not have been the case for countries like Nigeria and Kenya, that’s no longer the reality. As connectivity becomes more affordable and ubiquitous, Kenyans and Nigerians have become increasingly tech-savvy and conscious regarding how much data they share with technology companies and what the latter are doing with it.
In the face of these growing concerns, companies operating in Africa need to be mindful of the increasing privacy mindset of their customers. Aside from regulatory compliance, companies should actively demonstrate that they care about their customers’ privacy concerns in order to build and sustain trust and to show they’re taking a proactive approach to protect their personal information.
The importance of regulatory compliance
The first step any company should take to safeguard their customers’ privacy is ensuring they’re compliant with all of the relevant laws and regulations. In countries like Kenya and Nigeria, data protection regulations are relatively new.
The Data Protection Act of 2019, enforced by the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC), regulates data protection in Kenya. The act expressly prohibits organisations from processing personal data if their consent has not been provided first. Each organisation must have a data controller and/or a data processor whose responsibility is to prove they’ve obtained consent before processing a person’s data.
Nigeria’s Data Protection Act, meanwhile, was signed into law in 2023. The act governs both manual and automatic data processing. The act also established the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), which is an independent body that governs data protection and regulation in the country. In addition to defining sensitive personal data as including an individual’s genetic and biometric data as well as their race, ethnicity, and health status, among other things, the act also provides specific grounds for the processing of this sensitive personal data. According to the act, such data can be processed where consent is provided or where processing is necessary for social security or employment laws.
Both of these laws are in line with similar laws and regulations around the world, such as Europe’s GDPR. That means they’re not only a good place for Nigerian and Kenyan businesses to start for compliance, but they also help businesses gain good footing when it comes to protecting customer data should they start operating internationally.
Beyond compliance
Companies should, however, view regulatory compliance as the bare minimum when it comes to meeting their customers’ privacy needs. Given the parlous state of privacy protection across many African countries, going above and beyond with customer privacy can be a positive differentiator for companies that get it right.
Among the initiatives they can undertake in this direction are investing in data center security to minimise the collection of data, requesting permission from customers while collecting sensitive information, and ultimately reducing their reliance on selling user data for revenue gains. Another initiative that organisations can implement is implementing multi-factor authentication if they require customers to log in to an account to access their products and services.
Another aspect that businesses should pay close attention to is which technology vendor they work with to run their internal operations. Businesses should ensure the third-party tech tools they deploy within their IT infrastructure also come with strong data privacy and protection controls, and the corresponding vendors also practice transparent data collection practices. Should one of these vendors fall victim to a cybersecurity breach, the customer data of the organisations using it could easily fall into nefarious hands.
Businesses should, therefore, ensure they make use of software providers and vendors that are, themselves, compliant with all the relevant privacy laws and regulations, and offer a comprehensive set of security measures and procedures, including controlled user access, enterprise mobility management (EMM) integration, IP restrictions, and secure integrations.
Riding the positives of proactive protection
While there are many negatives associated with data protection failures, including reputational damage and legal punishments, it’s also important that organisations understand the positives associated with proactive data protection.
High up on the list of those positives is building trust. Customers who trust the companies they buy from are more likely to be loyal in the long term, make repeat purchases in the future, and act as evangelists to others. At a time when customers are increasingly concerned about data privacy, building that trust is more difficult, but also more rewarding than ever. It, in other words, is something worth investing in.
In today’s fast-paced world, where every penny counts, finding ways to save on essential services is more important than ever. And as part of its commitment to customer satisfaction, DStv has reiterated its “Price Lock” feature.
This is in response to the upcoming tariff increase, which the company understands may impose some financial strain on its valued customers.
What exactly does the “Price Lock” feature entail? The “Price Lock” feature offers customers the opportunity to retain their subscriptions at the current rate for 12 months.
To use the “Price Lock” feature, customers simply need to renew their subscriptions before the due date each month, ensuring uninterrupted access to their favourite DStv content at the current rate for the next 12 months.
But here’s the catch: only customers with an active subscription by the 30th of April qualify for this offer, when the tariff adjustment comes into effect.
Make sure you don’t miss the price lock offer! Simply download the MyDStv or MyGOtv app or dial *288# to subscribe, upgrade, or set up Auto-Renewal.
Civil Society Organisation (CSO) under the auspices of Open Justice Initiative (OJI), has threatened to drag the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to court if it fails to ban Netflix, TikTok, and others over the alleged broadcast of offensive same-sex content on Nigeria’s airwaves.
The CSO, also urged NBC to ban other social media platforms, including X, formerly known as Twitter, Facebook, etc with regard to the subject matter.
Donald Ayibiowu, lawyer and programme officer of OJI, gave the warning in a letter addressed to Mr. Charles Ebuebu, director-general of the NBC.
The certified true copy of the letter titled: “Need to ban and bar the continuous broadcast of offensive same-sex contents on Nigeria’s airwaves by Netflix and other specialised broadcast outlets”, made available to newsmen in Abuja, was received by the Commission on April 23, 2024.
The letter said, “We write to draw the esteem attention of your commission to some obnoxious and repugnant same-sex contents being aired or transmitted by some broadcast outfits operating within the Nigeria broadcast space, which platforms includes Netflix and some social media entities.
“These abhorrent contents being campaigned about borders on the promotion of amorous relationships between persons of same sex on the said platforms.
“We received complaints on this topic from well-meaning Nigerians and religious organisations and further discovered that the broadcast contents/materials on these platforms are laced with embedded scenes/episodes where same-sex relationships are practically being propagated.
“We also conducted research on some social media platforms like TikTok, Twitter (X), Facebook (Meta), etc with regards to this subject, and found same hazardous and illegal same-sex content being promoted and transmitted.
“It is clear that there is an agenda to surreptitiously lure the unsuspecting young population of this country to this satanic habit/lifestyle of same-sex practice in Nigeria by subtly introducing same through entertainment and showbiz industry, albeit through the airwaves.
“It is now commonplace to see some of these illegal contents being conveyed on social media and specialised platforms in Nigeria.
“We wish to point out that these contents are clearly being aired or transmitted in contravention of our extant laws such as Sections 4(2) and 5(2} of the Same-Sex Mariage (Prohibition) Act, 2013,” he said.
The lawyer said the act being subtly propagated and promoted via the mediums was targeted at destroying the moral fibre and rectitude, erode, dislodging and polluting the society with unacceptable inhuman values.
He said it was also to erode the age-long cultural practices and sacred religious belief system of male and female gender only as created by God Almighty.
Ayibiowu said, that if the commission failed to block, restrict or scrap the same-sex promotional material/contents from Nigeria airwaves, “we shall proceed to seek further redress in pursuit of our goal of saner Nigeria airwaves”.
Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has promised to review recent price increases in MultiChoice cable subscriptions to ensure subscribers in Nigeria get value for their money.
Recall that the leading pay TV operator, recently announced increase in the subscriptions for its DStv and GOtv packages by at least 25 per cent.
Multichoice announced the increase in tarrifs in a message sent to subscribers on Wednesday and said that the new regime will be effective May 1.
The company stated this in the statement signed by John Ugbe, chief executive officer was titled, ‘Price Adjustment on DStv and GOtv Packages.’
The pay-TV firm cited the rise in the cost of business operations as the rationale behind the price increase.
The company said, “We understand the impact this change may have on you – our valued customer, but the rise in the cost of business operations, has led us to make this difficult decision.
“It remains our mission to provide the best entertainment and viewing experience to you and are committed to continue to deliver high-quality content and unparalleled service. So, from Wednesday, 1 May 2024, the price adjustment will take effect.”
But Adamu Abdullahi, acting chief executive officer, FCCPC, in a chat with Channels Television on its Dateline Abuja programme on Thursday, provided an update on the summons issued to the owner of a Chinese store in Abuja accused of discriminatory and sharp practices.
He also commented on the adherence to the order given to the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, stating that sanctions are imminent for all verified infractions identified by the agency.
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