Personal data protection has become a major strategic issue in Africa, which is undergoing accelerated digital transformation. On the continent, few countries  have a data protection authority and Angola is one of them.

The Angolan Data Protection Agency (APD) recently announced a $150,000 fine slammed on Africell Angola over the violation of the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA). The telecom operator is accused of collecting subscribers’ personal data without prior authorization from the APD.

"The electronic communications operator collected various types of personal data such as the name of the person concerned, telephone number, address, gender, age, interests, credit or debit card data, bank and other payment information, interests, and preferences, location data, times of making and receiving calls, including the identification document," explains the APD in a statement.

Under current Angolan law, failure to comply with the obligation to notify the APD is punishable by a fine of up to $450,000. However, Africell benefited from a number of mitigating circumstances, including its clear and immediate intention to comply with the PDPA, the absence of a prior record, and the fact that it did not derive any economic benefit from the illegally collected data...

The coercive measure taken by the DPA illustrates the importance the Angolan government places on protecting its citizens’ personal data in the current context of accelerated digital transformation where a large volume of personal data is generated at every moment. In the report "Personal Data: The Strategic Challenge of an Increasingly Digitalized Africa," our sister website Ecofin Pro indicates that these data are strategic assets that can be exploited for socio-economic development and security, among others. For this reason, they cannot be left within everyone’s reach.

Isaac K. Kassouwi