The Nigerian Government, through the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, has warned content creators in the country against photographing or recording videos of unsuspecting members of the public without consent and sharing them on social media.
The commission said this on Friday in a statement issued by Mr. Babatunde Bamigboye, Head of Legal, Enforcement and Regulations, in Abuja.
Bamigboye said such actions violated citizensā rights to informational self-determination as guaranteed under Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Nigeria Data Protection Act.
According to him, the commissionās attention has been drawn to the activities of individuals who take pictures or video footage of unsuspecting members of the public and share them online for entertainment purposes.
Bamigboye cited the case of a content creator who reportedly stood by roadsides in Lagos to create a reality show using footage of unsuspecting members of the public.
The commission said processing peopleās images in such circumstances required their consent unless the creator could justify the action under other lawful bases of data processing.
He said preliminary investigations showed that such wilful invasion of citizensā privacy neither served a public interest nor a legitimate purpose.
āIn any event, the data subjects involved have no expectation that their images will be captured and shared with the whole world by an unknown individual,ā Bamigboye said.
He quoted Vincent Olatunji, National Commissioner of NDPC, as directing social media platform owners to strengthen enforcement of their community guidelines.
Nigerian govt warns content creators against unauthorised filming
Ā
