Egypt adopts data protection law

Egypt’s parliament adopted a Data Protection Law on 17 June.

“If a company is found to be processing, collecting or disclosing data without the individual’s consent, they can be punished by imprisonment for a period of less than three months, and face a fine between EGP 100,000 [£89 000] and EGP 1m [£894 000],” GDPR Report says.

Until now, Egypt has not had data protection legislation. An anti-cybercrime law was adopted in 2018 which requires telecommunications companies to retain and store users’ data for 180 days in order to assist the authorities in identifying users, computer IP addresses and metadata.

The constitution recognises the right to privacy and employees’ personal data is protected by Labour Law.

See GDPR Report.