International E-news - September 2011
- DP regime proposed in Singapore: Bill expected in early 2012
- Article 29 Working Party sceptical over advertising industry’s Self-Regulatory Code
- Costa Rica adopts a DP law
- PL&B publishes comprehensive table of privacy laws in 76 jurisdictions worldwide
1. DP regime proposed in Singapore: Bill expected in early 2012
Singapore is currently consulting on generic data protection legislation. The consultation, launched on 13 September by the Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts (MICA), addresses data protection in the private sector, and proposes a principles-based approach. The public sector is already regulated.
MICA seeks feedback on the scope of the proposed law, data management rules, enforcement and transitional arrangements. It is also proposed that a national Do-Not-Call Registry will be established.
The consultation finishes on 25 October.
2. Article 29 Working Party sceptical over advertising industry’s Self-Regulatory Code
The EU Data Protection Working Party’s Chairman, Jacob Kohnstamm, warned in a press release on 14 September that companies must not be misled into thinking that the code on Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA) prepared by EASA and IAB Europe (European Advertising Standards Alliance and Internet Advertising Bureau Europe) offers a “safe haven”.
The organisations met recently with the Working Party to discuss a way forward. Representatives of the OBA industry admitted that the current version of the code in itself does not intend to provide compliance with the European and national legal requirements. The Working Party made clear that this document fails to meet the expectations voiced by Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission.
The EU data protection authorities are concerned that the code does not include a mechanism for providing a valid consent to receiving cookies. The Working Party will produce an opinion on the code by the end of 2011.
See the press release by the EU DP Working Party.
3. Costa Rica adopts a DP law
On 7 September, Costa Rica adopted a data protection law thus joining six other countries in Central and Latin America with such laws (Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru).
The law, which aims to ensure privacy rights for any person, regardless of nationality, residence or domicile, applies both to automatic and manual processing in the private and public sectors.
This news was provided by Pablo A. Palazzi, a lawyer at Allende & Brea, Buenos Aires, Argentina. E-mail: pap@allendebrea.com.ar web: www.allendebrea.com
Read more about the law in a future issue of Privacy Laws & Business International.
4. PL&B publishes comprehensive table of privacy laws in 76 jurisdictions worldwide
Comprehensive national-level privacy laws covering companies can now be found in 76 jurisdictions around the world, writes Professor Graham Greenleaf, PL&B’s Asia-Pacific Editor, in the September issue of the PL&B International Report published yesterday. This issue includes a table which provides information about each law, and an analysis of the characteristics of these laws. For the first time, countries such as Angola, Ukraine and India are included. Professor Greenleaf found that there are now 27 privacy laws outside Europe. Bills are in progress in the legislatures of Brazil, the Philippines, Thailand, Ghana and South Africa.
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