A Nigerian Court Told Meta It Cannot Force You Into Ad Tracking. Meta Is Fighting Back
A Lagos court ruled that clicking Accept on Facebook's terms is not real consent to ad profiling. Meta has appealed. Here is what is at stake for your data.
Phone with ad tracking icons beside a judge's gavel, headline Court vs Big Tech Your Data
Ever searched for shoes and then seen shoe ads follow you around Instagram for a week? That is behavioural advertising: Meta tracks what you click, watch and search, builds a profile of you, and sells ads against it.
A Nigerian court has now said Meta cannot simply assume you agreed to that. Meta disagrees, and the fight is heading to the Court of Appeal.
What the court decided
On September 25, Justice A.F. Pokanu of the Lagos High Court in Ikorodu ruled that Meta unlawfully used the personal data of six Nigerian Facebook and Instagram users for targeted advertising without valid consent. The key findings:
Accepting general terms of service when you sign up does not automatically count as consent to ad profiling.
Consent must be a clear, affirmative choice, not a pre-ticked box, and users must be told they can withdraw it.
The fact that ads pay for a free service does not make tracking automatically necessary.
Meta stays responsible under the Nigeria Data Protection Act even when the data is processed outside Nigeria.
The court ordered Meta to stop the unlawful processing, bring its practices into line with the law, file proof of compliance within eight weeks and pay the naira equivalent of $100,000 in damages.
Meta's response
Five days later, on September 30, Meta filed an appeal. Its position is that Facebook and Instagram are free because they are funded by ads, and users agree to that model when they accept the terms and privacy policy.
What it means for you right now
Nothing changes on your phone today. The case involved six named users, Meta has appealed, and the ruling is not a ban on ads in Nigeria. But the reasoning matters. If the Court of Appeal agrees with it, Meta could be forced to rethink how it asks Nigerians for consent, possibly with a clearer opt-in for tracking.
This is also not Meta's first data fight in Nigeria. In 2025, it settled a separate case with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission for $32.8 million. The pattern is clear: Nigerian regulators and courts are increasingly willing to test Big Tech on data.
What to watch
The Court of Appeal decision will set the tone for every ad-funded app operating in Nigeria. It will answer one big question: how much of your data can a free app demand in exchange for letting you use it?
Sources: TechCabal and TheNigeriaLawyer
Belma
I'm Mujeeb Bello, better known as Belma, and I started TechInNaija to tell the stories behind Nigeria's growing tech scene in a simple, relatable way. I'm Head of Marketing at Scale Through Automation, where I work on AI and business automation, and I spent over five years as a Virtual Assistant helping businesses run their operations and digital tools. I studied Agricultural Education, but curiosity about technology shaped my career. I write for everyday Nigerians, founders, students and anyone curious about tech, so you leave every story knowing why it matters and how it affects you.
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