Video: Vodafone CEO speaks to privacy breach claims

The Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Ghana, Patricia Obo-Nai has reacted to claims that the telecom giant has given the government access to its resources to ‘spy’ on Ghanaians.

Speaking in an interview on the Y LeaderBoard Series on Y FM, Patricia Obo-Nai clearly stated, “Vodafone didn’t take any decision to breach anybody’s privacy and we will never take any decision to do so. We are a very responsible organization.”

Explaining the issue, she noted that under the emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic, the President passed an Executive Instrument (E.I. 63) that mandated all network service providers in Ghana to submit data of customers to aid the government in its contact tracing efforts.

She added that when the government’s request reached the public, a private citizen went to court to file an injunction application on the basis of the request being against data protection laws of the country.

“The whole time people were discussion this in the media, we had not been served and we could not hold a media war on it. Once we were served and received the injunction application, we wrote to the authorities and we stopped sending the data,” she indicated.

Reiterating the stance of the company, Patricia said “We have not breached anybody’s privacy. The news about people reading your messages and listening to your calls is a lie. Government is not reading your messages and whatsApp messages. It is a lie, please no one is listening to your calls.”

The Vodafone CEO said beyond the laws of Ghana, Vodafone operates under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) governing the telecommunications industry in Europe, adding that “Vodafone will never do anything to affect our customers negatively.”

Facts of the case
In March 2020, The President of Ghana, H.E. Nana Akufo-Addo, passed an Executive Instrument (E.I. 63) that mandated the mobile network operators, including Vodafone Ghana to submit subscriber information known as call data records (CDRs) to the National Communications Authority (NCA). This formed part of the government’s contact tracing initiative in the ongoing fight against COVID-19. All the mobile network operators complied with the E.I 63.

The Executive Instrument was subsequently challenged by a customer, who filed an application at the High Court for an injunction to stop all mobile network operators from sharing his data with the National Communications Authority (NCA). Upon receipt of the injunction application, Vodafone Ghana immediately stopped the transmission of all subscriber data related to the contact tracing initiative, pending the court’s ruling on the case, scheduled for 23rd June 2020.