We are improving our privacy rules - SafeBoda

SafeBoda last week published new guidelines, attracting a lot of debate from users and the general public. PHOTO/FILE.

Summary

• NITA-U last month published a report in which it faulted SafeBoda for not revealing to customers a company with which it was disclosing users’ data for improved customer experience.

By Christine Kasemiire

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Safeboda has said it is improving on its privacy policy to protect users’ rights.

The boda boda ride application, whose parent company had been faulted for failing to secure users’ data, also indicated in a statement that it was working on implementing recommendations highlighted in the National Information Technology Authority Uganda (NITA-U) investigations to enhance user privacy.

“The report adds a number of recommendations for SafeBoda that we are now working to comply with.  Ensuring our staff and the wider team understands the importance of data protection is also paramount,” a statement said.

In its report, NITA-U had directed that SafeBoda updates its staff policy to reflect data privacy requirements, which in response the company, has already updated its employee handbook to ensure that staff complete regular training to remain up-to-date with any changes to data privacy and protection laws.

NITA-U, on January 25 published a report in which it faulted SafeBoda for failing to reveal to customers the company with whom it was disclosing users’ data for improved customer experience.

The report had highlighted that SafeBoda unlawfully disclosed users’ data to CleverTap, a US data processor, which contravened the Data Protection and Privacy Act since the consent relied upon for the disclosure were neither specific nor were  they informed.

According to SafeBoda, the interpretation is largely around the concept of consent which is still debated in data protection best practices.
However, the company noted it had since updated some of its policies to make it more explicit and detailed to customers to build strong standards and best practices in the ecosystem.

Sharing information with other parties is common in the technology world, which is one of the reasons the Data Protection and Privacy Act 2019 was passed.
The law was passed about two years ago to protect information of Ugandan citizens handled in and out of the country.

Build best practices  
In a statement, SafeBoda said that because the Act is still new and whose regulations are yet to be issued, the NITA-U report was an opportunity for the technology company to build best practices for Ugandan companies.

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com