The IAPP published an article on June 18th, 2020 on the Senate’s approval of the Jamaica privacy bill.
The Jamaica Senate passed the country’s data protection bill, which takes effect in 2022.
Sen. Kamina Johnson Smith said a two-year grace period is, “an appropriate period for public education” on the Bill so that people will understand it when it has come into effect.
Key points:
- The Data Protection Act, 2020 intends to safeguard the privacy, and personal information of Jamaicans was passed in the Senate on June 12th. The Bill was approved by Senators with three amendments following passage by the House of Representatives on May 19th.
- The Data Protection Bill provides guidelines on how personal data should be collected, processed, stored, used, and disclosed in any physical or electronic form. It requires that data only be obtained for specific lawful purposes following the consent of an individual and not be further used or processed for means other than its original purpose.
- Leader of Government Business, Sen. Kamina Johnson Smith, noted that there would be a two-year transitional period for public awareness on the Bill before the legislation comes into effect. The Senator further stated that this exercise would be important to promote “the positives of the Bill, and indeed, the positives of the National Identification System (NIDS).
- The transitional period will also allow data controllers time to implement measures to ensure full compliance with the legislation and other administrative processes.
Reference: iapp.org
Contributed by: Jason Jacobs from Guyana. Jason is a member of the CCST Discord group from the G5 Cyber Security Foundation Ltd. Learn more about CCST (Caribbean Cyber Support Team) by visiting caribbeancst.org. CCST is a collaborative group on the Discord platform for Caribbean people in IT, from beginners to experts.