Lagos Court Rules Truecaller Consent Cannot Cover Third-Party Contacts

A Lagos High Court has ruled that Truecaller cannot use one person's consent as the legal basis for processing the personal data of other people saved in that person's contacts, according to TechCabal.

In a ruling dated September 14, 2026, and seen by TechCabal, the court determined that a user's decision to grant the caller-identification app access to their phonebook does not extend permission to process the phone numbers of contacts who had never used the app themselves.

Despite that finding, the court declined to award damages to the individuals whose data was processed. TechCabal reported that this outcome created a gap in Nigeria's privacy framework: a company may be found to lack a lawful basis for processing someone's data, yet that person may still receive no compensation unless they can demonstrate concrete, measurable harm.