Personal Data Sharing: Are We Really In Control?
The Struggle for Control of Our Personal Data
The latest controversy surrounding personal data and how it’s shared has served as a tremendous eye-opener regarding how much control we really have over our personal data online. We would like to think that the implementation of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation would tip the balance in our favor. Instead, the situation is foggier than ever, and the struggle over the control of our data is only just beginning.
What is Personal Data?
Data is a key component of the new digital world
Personal data is any information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual.
To most people, personal data includes private details like our name, date of birth, where we live, etc. However, its true definition encompasses more than this. In actuality, personal data embodies the tiniest of details that could relate to us.
Apart from the fact that we willfully give out our information to social media networks and just about any website requiring our details for one service or another, our activities online are also a major way that service providers are able to access our data.
As expected, the websites people visit the most, like social media, content streaming, and
online retail websites have emerged as the leading data bank of the digital world. They collect so much data on us that tracking them is becoming difficult. We would expect that these should slow down their data collection activities; instead, they continue to introduce new initiatives
that will help them collect more data.
THE BOTTOM LINE
We live in a data-obsessed world, and shared data is the price we pay for the various services we access online. While data policies look to involve us in the personal data sharing
process, we are still a long way from total ownership of our data online. After all, how can we
possibly own or control what we don't even know exists?
Before the emergence of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation, we had no say on our personal data. Service providers were the sole custodian, and they could do whatever they
pleased with the data they retrieved. Although it is still business as usual for service providers in some regions, the introduction of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation set a new tone as to how the outlook of data policies in the near future will be constructed.
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