2024 Data Privacy Law: Stakeholders Discuss Benefits, Legal Void

As citizens increasingly train generative Artificial Intelligence, AI platforms with detailed personal identities, share biometrics on daily applications, and walk past unnotified CCTV surveillance cameras, a critical question looms over Cameroon’s expanding digital landscape. How well are individual rights protected in practice?

Digital Policy Engagement

This central concern dominated discussions at the latest Deep Dives forum - a component of the Digital Policy Engagement Series organized by Civic Watch Cameroon in partnership with Paradigm Initiative. Held in Yaounde on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, the multi-stakeholder gathering convened researchers, legal experts, media professionals, civil society representatives, and state institutional actors. Including officials from ANTIC, MINPOSTEL, and the National Communication Council - to dissect the real-world application of digital rights and national legislation.

The AI Trade-Off

Opening the exchange, Dr. Ngala Desmond Ngala, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Civic Watch Cameroon, challenged participants to reflect on their everyday interactions with Artificial Intelligence. Pointing out how routinely users supply models with their professions, age groups, and personal interests to refine outputs, he highlighted a growing digital paradox.

Unknown To Us!

"We notice that these are wonderful tools... but there is something we ignore," Dr. Desmond noted. "We have been giving personal information to buy into it. So, you give your own information, and then AI asks you to pay to get that same information back," Dr Ngala pointed out.

Beyond generative AI, the session underscored how everyday habits expose ordinary Cameroonians to severe privacy risks. From visitor sign-in registers at corporate entrances to unmanaged CCTV feeds in retail spaces, the public sharing of photos or videos online without consent, personal data is continuously harvested without clear retention timelines or access guarantees.

Law No. 2024

Providing a comprehensive legal breakdown, Barrister Balbine Manga, an expert in cyber legislation and internet governance, unpacked Cameroon’s 75-article Law on Personal Data Protection enacted in 2024. While noting that Cameroon has maintained texts governing cybercrime and electronic communications since 2010, Barrister Manga welcomed the 2024 law as a long-awaited framework. Designed to establish digital trust and protect fundamental liberties amid an explosion of big data.

Scope

Under Article 5 of the law, personal data processing encompasses any automated or manual operation. Including the collection, storage, modification, transmission, or recording of identifiers. Such as biometrics, physical descriptions, bank details, photos, social security numbers, and video content.

Rights, Restrictions 

Barrister Manga emphasized core statutory principles, including mandatory consent from the data subject, with explicit parental or legal guardian authorization required for minors under 18 years of age. Core rights guaranteeing data subjects the right to information, access, modification, objection, retraction, and the right to be forgotten (erasure), alongside post-mortem instructions regarding digital accounts.

Others are strict prohibitions against processing data based on social class, ethnic origin, political opinion, trade union affiliation, or religious conviction (Articles 17 and 52). Requirements for data controllers to maintain active digital or physical registers of processing activities (Article 29).

Sanctions

To deter abuse, the 2024 legislation incorporates a robust penalty framework. Administrative measures range from formal warnings and activity suspensions to outright operational bans. Civil remedies allow victims to file summary proceedings in court to halt the unauthorized dissemination of personal data and seek damages. On the criminal front, penalties include severe prison terms and fines escalating up to 100 million FCFA.

Structural Gaps