Internet Without Borders calls for more transparency on personal data collection, following Cambridge Analytica revelations - Internet Sans Frontières

Paris, March 19, 2018: Internet Without Borders is appalled by the recent revelations on Cambridge Analytica and US elections, and particularly shocked to learn that according to the former employees  who spoke to the New York Times,“The group experimented abroad, including in the Caribbean and Africa, where privacy rules were lax or nonexistent”.

The Observer and the New York Times have revealed that Cambridge Analytica, a company owned by the billionaire Robert Mercer, and headed at the time by Trump’s key adviser Steve Bannon – unlawfully used personal information of millions of Facebook users, in 2014, in order to predict voters’ behavior and create personalized targeted political advertisements.

“These revelations show the importance of paying very close attention to the issue of digital rights and freedoms in Africa, and in other markets where the protection of users’ personal data is weak. It is clear that savage data collection practices, which are tested in emerging countries, are applied in markets of industrialized countries. This has a direct impact on Western democracies,” said Archippe Yepmou, President of Internet Without Borders

Since 2010, Internet Without Borders has been actively speaking about the practices of African governments and private companies, arguing that sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, is a testing ground of the worst methods that breach privacy and freedom of expression of users on the Internet. In 2017, during an event on digital rights in London, Archippe Yepmou presented Internet Sans Frontières’ work on this particular issue:

Internet Without Borders calls online companies, which heavily depend on the exploitation of our personal data, to be more transparent about their collection methods, who they share our data with, for which purpose, and how they protect them from illegal uses. Internet Without Borders also urgently calls for the adoption of stricter regulations on digital privacy.

For more information:
Contact Archippe Yepmou, President of Internet Without Borders

Phone number +337 58 83 07 67

Email archippe@gmail.com