A recent study by the International Telecommunications Union has placed Nigeria at the forefront of digital transformation readiness, awarding it a score of 71 percent.

This evaluation, carried out in partnership with the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, assessed nations on their legal, policy, and governance structures to gauge their progress toward reaching an advanced level of digital transformation, referred to as G5.

On Wednesday, the Nigeria Communications Commission announced that the report was presented by Dr. Bosun Tijani, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, during an event in Abuja.

The report titled “Collaborative Regulation: Accelerating Nigeria’s Digital Transformation” presented a case study for a collaborative regulation review to assess and support Nigeria’s transition towards collaborative digital governance, evidence-based policymaking and agile regulation in the digital economy.

Nigeria’s position places it among the leading seven nations in Africa, in the same league as Germany, Finland, and Singapore, which top the global rankings.

The report also highlighted Nigeria’s strong position on the BEMECS 5G Readiness Index, reflecting the country’s preparedness for the widespread deployment and adoption of 5G networks.

Tijani, during his speech at the event, praised the ITU along with its partner organizations and consultants for bringing the report to fruition and reiterated the Federal Government’s dedication “To utilise this report as a navigational aid towards the attainment of our regulatory objectives and policies outlines towards achieving a robust digital economy.

“That is what we will continue to do as a government, ensuring that we can put ourselves in a place to have cutting-edge modern regulations in place to ensure that business is done properly in our sector and to ensure that, where possible, increase the local content of the sector as well,” he said.

He observed that the NCC has evolved over time to address the shifting nature of its role and responsibilities.

Read Also: Nigerian govt releases over N438 billion to 34 States, FCT

He explained, “Fifteen, twenty years ago, NCC was just regulating the telecommunications sector; today, NCC regulates the foundation for which any economy would be prosperous.”

The report, shared with a diverse group of important industry players such as service providers, government officials, representatives from international organizations, the West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly, and the Africa Telecommunications Union, among others, was also intended to enhance current cross-country benchmarks that evaluate various aspects of national policies and regulatory settings.

The features of countries’ policy and regulatory environment are assessed according to the pillars of the generations of regulation frameworks that track telecom regulatory maturity towards digital transformation readiness, designated at the G5 Advanced State of Readiness” for which Nigeria currently stands at G4.

“Nigeria’s advanced state of readiness for digital transformation is benchmarked against four critical levels of accomplishments, which include national collaborative governance, policy design principles, the digital development toolbox, and the digital economic policy agenda.

“The country’s scores across these benchmarks are impressive, with notable highlights including 91 per cent in Regulatory Capacity, 82 per cent in Market Rules, 81 per cent in collaborative governance, 76 per cent in Legal Instruments for ICT/telecom markets, and 69 per cent in National Digital Agenda Policy,” the report stated.

In a significant shift, Google has reversed its initial plan to eliminate third-party cookies, opting instead to introduce new privacy measures that aim to balance user privacy with the needs of advertisers. This decision reflects Google’s responsiveness to industry feedback and its commitment to evolving digital advertising.

The Initial Plan to Eliminate Cookies

Google’s original plan to phase out third-party cookies by 2022 was part of a broader effort to enhance user privacy. Cookies, small pieces of data stored on users’ devices, track browsing habits and are crucial for personalized advertising. However, they have raised privacy concerns, prompting Google to consider alternatives.

Why the Change?

Advertisers and marketers heavily rely on cookies to deliver targeted ads, and the elimination of cookies posed a significant challenge to their business models. The backlash from the advertising industry and concerns about the impact on small businesses led Google to reconsider its approach.

The Role of Cookies in Digital Advertising

Cookies play a pivotal role in digital advertising. They enable advertisers to track user behavior across websites, providing insights into preferences and interests. This data allows for personalized ads, which are more likely to engage users and drive sales. Without cookies, advertisers would struggle to deliver relevant ads, potentially leading to reduced ad revenue and less effective marketing campaigns.

Introducing Privacy Sandbox

To address these concerns, Google has introduced the Privacy Sandbox initiative. This initiative aims to create web standards that enhance user privacy while still enabling personalized advertising. Privacy Sandbox includes several proposals:

1. Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC): This method groups users with similar interests into cohorts, reducing the ability to track individual users while still allowing for targeted advertising.
2. Turtledove and FLEDGE: These proposals focus on enabling interest-based advertising without exposing users’ browsing behavior to third parties.
3. Conversion Measurement: This feature allows advertisers to measure the effectiveness of their ads without relying on third-party cookies.

Balancing Privacy and Advertising Needs

Google’s new approach seeks to strike a balance between protecting user privacy and supporting the advertising ecosystem. By developing privacy-focused alternatives to cookies, Google aims to maintain the functionality of personalized ads while addressing privacy concerns.

The Impact on Advertisers and Users

Advertisers will need to adapt to these new measures, potentially rethinking their strategies for targeting and measuring ad performance. However, the Privacy Sandbox provides a pathway to continue delivering relevant ads without compromising user privacy.

For users, these changes promise enhanced privacy and control over their data. They can expect a reduction in invasive tracking practices while still receiving personalized content and ads.

Google’s decision to reverse its cookie ban and introduce the Privacy Sandbox reflects its commitment to evolving with the digital landscape. This approach aims to create a sustainable model for online advertising that respects user privacy and supports advertisers’ needs.

In summary, Google’s pivot from eliminating cookies to introducing the Privacy Sandbox is a significant development in digital advertising. By balancing user privacy with the needs of advertisers, Google is paving the way for a more secure and effective advertising ecosystem. This move highlights the importance of adaptability and responsiveness in the ever-changing tech industry.

When Google announced this week that its climate emissions had risen by 48 percent since 2019, it pointed the finger at artificial intelligence.

US tech firms are building vast networks of data centres across the globe and say AI is fuelling the growth, throwing the spotlight on the amount of energy the technology is sucking up and its impact on the environment.

How does AI use electricity?
Every time a user punches a request into a chatbot or generative AI tool, the request is fired off to a data centre.

Even before that stage, developing AI programs known as large language models (LLMs) needs a huge amount of computer power.

All the while, the computers are burning through electricity and the servers get hotter, meaning more electricity to cool them.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a report earlier this year that data centres in general used roughly 40 percent of electricity on computing and 40 percent on cooling.

Why are experts worried?
Big tech firms have been rushing to pack all their products with AI ever since OpenAI launched its ChatGPT bot in late 2022.

Plenty of experts are concerned these new products will cause electricity usage to spike.

This is firstly because AI services require more power than their non-AI analogues.

For example, various studies have shown that each request made to ChatGPT uses roughly 10 times the power of a single Google search.

So if Google switches all search queries to AI — about nine billion a year — it could hugely inflate the company’s electricity usage.

And most of these new services and products rely on LLMs.

Programming these algorithms is extremely intensive and usually requires high-powered computer chips.

They in turn require more cooling, which uses more electricity.

How much energy does AI use?
Before the era of AI, estimates generally suggested data centres accounted for around one percent of global electricity demand.

The IEA report said data centres, cryptocurrencies and AI combined used 460 TWh of electricity worldwide in 2022, almost two percent of total global electricity demand.

The IEA estimated that the figure could double by 2026 — the equivalent of Japan’s usage figures.

Alex De Vries, a researcher who runs the Digiconomist website, modelled the electricity used by AI alone by focusing on sales projections from the US firm NVIDIA, which has cornered the market in AI-specialised servers.

He concluded in a paper late last year that that if NVIDIA’s projected sales for 2023 were correct and all those servers ran at full power, they alone could be responsible for between 85.4–134.0 TWh of annual electricity consumption — an amount similar to Argentina or Sweden.

“The numbers I put in that article were already conservative to begin with because I couldn’t include things like cooling requirements,” he told AFP.

And he added that adoption of NVIDIA’s servers had outstripped last year’s projections, so the figures would certainly be higher.

How are data centres coping?
Fabrice Coquio of Digital Realty, a data centre company that leases its services to others, told AFP during a visit to one of its enormous facilities north of Paris in April that AI was going to transform his industry.

“It’s going to be exactly the same (as the cloud), maybe a bit more massive in terms of the deployment,” he said.

Part of Digital Realty’s latest data centre hub in Courneuve — a gigantic edifice that looks like a football stadium — will be dedicated to AI.

Coquio explained that normal computing requests could be handled by server racks in rooms with powerful air-conditioning.

But AI racks use much more powerful components, get much hotter and require water to be physically pumped into the equipment, he said.

“For sure, this requires different servers, storage equipment, communication equipment,” Coquio said.

Is it sustainable?
The biggest players in AI and data centres — Amazon, Google and Microsoft — have been trying to reduce their carbon footprints by buying up vast amounts of renewable energy.

Amazon official Prasad Kalyanaraman told AFP that the firm’s data centre division, AWS, was “the largest purchaser of renewable energy in the world today”.

AWS is committed to being a net-zero carbon company by 2040. Google and Microsoft have pledged to reach that goal by 2030.

But building new data centres and ramping up usage in existing ones is not going to help with green energy targets.

Google and Microsoft have said in recent reports that their greenhouse gas emissions have been rising in the last few years.

Google flagged a 48 per cent rise from 2019 and Microsoft a 30 percent increase from 2020.

Both have squarely blamed AI.

Microsoft President Brad Smith told Bloomberg in May the pledge was a “moonshot” made before the AI “explosion”, adding that “the Moon is five times as far away as it was in 2020”.

On Friday, Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission fined Meta Platforms $220 million for breaching data privacy regulations.

According to a statement from the FCCPC, which was acquired by The PUNCH, Meta’s data-sharing practices on Facebook and WhatsApp violated Nigerian consumer and data protection laws.

The commission, in a statement authored by acting Executive Chairman Adamu Abdullahi, accused Meta of denying Nigerian users control over their data, sharing data without permission, and misusing its dominant market position.

It said, “The Final order also imposes a monetary penalty of Two Hundred and Twenty Million U.S. Dollars only ($220,000,000.00) (at prevailing exchange rate where applicable) which penalty is in accordance with the FCCPA 2018, and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection (Administrative Penalties) Regulations 2020.”

The FCCPC revealed that it began its inquiry in May 2021, following indications that Meta, via its platforms, had violated the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018 and the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation 2019. These regulations were in force before the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 came into effect.

The competition watchdog observed that Meta complied with requests for documents and summons by supplying certain information.

It stated, “Meta representatives and their retained legal counsel have consistently engaged with and met investigators and analysts from the commission and the NDPC, including as recently as April 4, 2024.”

The FCCPC revealed that its probe found evidence of Meta using abusive and intrusive methods on data users in Nigeria. This involved gathering personal information without permission and applying discriminatory practices against Nigerians, among other concerns.

It observed that Meta had the chance to present its defense during the investigation before the final decision was made. The decision pertains to violations, especially concerning:

FCCPC stated, “Denying Nigerian data subjects the right to self-determine; unauthorised transfer and sharing of Nigerian data-subjects personal data, including cross-border storage in violation of then, and now prevailing law; discrimination and disparate treatment; abuse of Dominance; and tying and bundling.

Read also: Massive global IT outage hits airlines, banks, media

“The Final Order of the Commission mandates steps and actions Meta Parties must take to comply with prevailing law and cease the exploitation of Nigerian consumers and their market abuse, as well as desist from future similar or other conduct/practices that do not meet nationally applicable standards and undermine the rights of consumers.”

Apple has issued another round of spyware warnings to iPhone users in 98 countries this week. This comes just three months after a similar alert in April, marking the second notification of its kind this year.

On Wednesday, numerous iPhone users reported receiving these warnings and shared their experiences along with screenshots on social media.

“Apple detected that you are being targeted by a mercenary spyware attack that is trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID,” read the notifications sent from threats-notification@apple.com. “This attack is likely targeting you specifically because of who you are or what you do. Although it’s never possible to achieve absolute certainty when detecting such attacks, Apple has high confidence in this warning — please take it seriously.”

Apple has been issuing these types of warnings since 2021, but the term “mercenary spyware attacks” has become more common in recent notifications. Previous alerts from Apple described these threats as “state-sponsored,” a term that no longer appears in the latest warnings.

The latest notifications seem to have primarily targeted individuals in journalism and news media, based on social media posts from those affected. Apple’s message underscores the importance of the warnings due to the specific nature of the attacks and the professional roles of the targets.

The April notification and the recent alert reflect a growing concern over the use of sophisticated spyware aimed at specific individuals. Apple’s continued vigilance in sending these warnings highlights the persistent threat such spyware poses to iPhone users worldwide.

Apple urges recipients of these warnings to take them seriously and consider the security measures available to protect their devices and personal information. This includes keeping iOS updated, using strong passwords, and being cautious of unsolicited messages and links.

Apple and Google have introduced a new tool that allows users to transfer their photo and video collections directly from Google Photos to iCloud Photos. This new feature completes the reciprocal data transfer capabilities between the two platforms, having already supported transfers from iCloud Photos to Google Photos. The rollout of this tool is expected to be completed over the next week.

The new transfer tool is powered by the open-source Data Transfer Project technology, which ensures that the transfer process maintains high standards of data integrity and security. This technology aligns data models and authentication processes, making the transfer of personal media collections seamless and reliable.

The introduction of this tool marks a significant step forward in data portability, a feature that users have come to expect from major tech services. By providing an easy and trustworthy method to move media between Google Photos and iCloud Photos, Apple and Google are enhancing the user experience and ensuring that personal data can be transferred without loss of quality or security.

This development is part of a broader effort by both companies to improve data transfer capabilities and user control over personal data. As they continue to expand these features, users can look forward to more flexible and secure options for managing their digital media collections.