Data Protection in Mobile Money

This paper provides an overview of data protection practices that will have a significant impact on the provision of mobile money services in the years ahead. It delves into some of the key areas of data protection affecting mobile money services:

• Data processing, which is concerned with the lawful bases for processing of personal data.
• Data security, which looks at the physical and logical security of the data.
• Data localization, which considers the limitations of cross-border data transfer.
• Data sharing, which takes into consideration the sharing of data between industry players and how it interplays with the need for privacy and data protection frameworks.

While recognizing the multifaceted nature of data protection, the paper serves as an introductory piece on these specific issues. It highlights some of the potential implications of new requirements, and opens the conversation to mobile money providers as well as policy makers and regulators, so that these actors can subsequently develop frameworks that will protect the consumer, while boosting the development of the digital economy.