Microsoft says Nigerian government requesting for citizens’ private data

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Microsoft has revealed that the Nigerian government is one of the governments in the world that have requested for the private data of some of the company’s customers.

Responding to ITWebAfrica’s inquiry at a recently held interactive session in Lagos, Ijeoma Abazie, Corporate Affairs Manager at Microsoft Nigeria said the requests were handled in accordance with the company’s global response strategy which is to escalate globally and allow Microsoft’s designated team to handle the request.

Corroborating Abazie’s statements, Yinka Oni, Microsoft Nigeria’s Chief Technology Officer added: “Do requests come out of Nigeria? Yes they do and we transparently publish them globally. This is something that is being done centrally, not something that is being done by Microsoft Nigeria but yes, there are requests emanating from Nigeria.”

Abazie assured Microsoft customers in Nigeria that the government does not have access to their data and the company is obliged to notify customers of any breach to privacy.

She added that Microsoft is in support of data privacy which is why the company is fighting legal battles with the US government and in courts in other countries that have jurisdiction over cases of data privacy.

She said the company was the first to sign the Students’ privacy pledge and has recently gotten the ISO 27018 certification which is the world’s first cloud privacy standard.

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“At Microsoft we believe our customers’ data will remain our customers’ data. The new certification assures Microsoft customers that they are at all times in control of their data. We will only do what you have instructed us to do with your data, we will not use your data for advertisement or marketing purposes except with your expressed consent,” Abazie said.