Smartphone brand Oppo is in trouble in Kenya after the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) issued a Kshs 5 million penalty against it for failure to comply with an enforcement notice issued against it.
The said enforcement notice, issued on 3rd November 2022, was made after Oppo Kenya was concluded to have infringed on the privacy of an unnamed complainant. This was by way of using the said complainant’s photo on the company’s Instagram account (stories) without the complainant’s consent.
“Oppo Kenya has refused to co-operate with ODPC by among others; failing to adduce and/or develop a policy for compliance with Sections 37 of the Act, which provides that a person shall not use, for commercial purposes, personal data obtained pursuant to the provisions of the Act, unless the person has sought consent from a data subject or is authorized to do so under any written law,” a statement from the ODPC reads.
“Oppo Kenya has refused to co-operate with ODPC by among others; failing to adduce and/or develop a policy for compliance with Sections 37 of the Act, which provides that a person shall not use, for commercial purposes, personal data obtained pursuant to the provisions of the Act, unless the person has sought consent from a data subject or is authorized to do so under any written law.”
“Oppo Kenya has also failed to adduce a data protection policy pursuant to the enforcement notice issued; and proof that it has developed an internal complaints mechanism to address data subjects’ complaints,” the statement from the ODPC continues.
