FG alerts on rising data theft, privacy issues

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has alerted Nigerians to increasing risks of data breach through the mobile applications (apps) on phones.

NITDA in a statement on Thursday said large numbers of mobile health applications are now found to encourage data theft.

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“This has become more worrisome as current research has revealed that large numbers of mobile health applications are found to encourage data theft, thereby infringing on your privacy”, the statement signed NITDA’s spokesperson, Hadiza Umar said.

She said the mobile health applications, mostly available on android platforms and downloaded through Google play store, handle increasingly sensitive data over unsecured Internet communications and third-party servers.

These sensitive data collected pose security threats to users as most of these apps do not only access data, but also share accessed data with third parties, she said.

The NITDA spokesperson said Nigerians should avoid downloading apps from third party sources.

She said: “Users should examine apps before they download them, to understand the level of information the app requests for. This can be done by evaluating reviews by other app users.”