The Constitution of Burkina Faso, 1991 provides for the right to privacy and confidentiality of correspondence. Law N°010- 2004/AN was passed to apply these rights to individuals’ personal data, and in 2007, Burkina Faso became the first French speaking country in sub-Saharan Africa with an operative data protection authority, the Commission de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CIL). As the body has been functioning for over a decade, it has had time to discover certain flaws in the law and in its implementation and highlight areas in need of reform. A revision of the law has been drafted, but not yet passed.
Under Law N°010- 2004/AN, individuals have the right to:
- be informed at the time of collection of the purposes for which the data are used and the identity of the data controller;
- access their personal data without delay or excessive costs;
- oppose, for legitimate reasons, the processing of personal data concerning them;
- oppose the processing of personal data for marketing or advertising;
- correct personal data being held about them if it is inaccurate or incomplete; and
- not be subject to decisions made on the sole basis of an automated processing that would produce adverse legal ramifications for them.
Mad. Marguerite OUÉDRAOGO / BONANÉ is the President of the Commission of the Computing and
the Liberties(CIL)
Source: dataprotection.africa
