Personal data protection legislation approved by Cabinet

The Cabinet of Ministers green-lighted to publish the updated version of the draft Private Data Security Bill in a gazette notification and to table it in Parliament for approval. 

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday, in his capacity as the Technology Minister, presented the proposal in this regard to the Cabinet of Ministers for approval.

The draft bill is expected to provide measures to protect personal data of individuals held by banks, telecom operators, hospitals and other personal data aggregating and 
processing entities.

According to the ICTA, the drafting committee appointed by the ministry considered international best practices, such as the OECD Privacy Guidelines, APEC Privacy Framework, Council of Europe Data Protection Convention, EU General Data Protection Regulation and laws enacted in other jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia and Mauritius, laws enacted in the State of California as well as the Indian draft bill, when formulating the 
draft legislation.

The Central Bank, which originally initiated this legislation, along with the TRCSL and Securities Exchange Commission, are working together to support the implementation of this new legislation. Further, an expert committee has been appointed to formulate the implementation framework.

Data protection legislation has been recognised as an urgent requirement, given the dynamics of digital strategies adopted by the government and private sector. 

“In the context of contact tracing solutions for effective management of COVID-19 by health authorities and the planned digital identity initiative, the draft bill is of paramount importance and strengthens the governance and administration of personal data,” the ICTA noted.

Further, the proposed law is also expected to address data breaches through proposed establishment of the Data Protection Authority.

The first version of the draft bill, published in June 2019, was subject to seven rounds of stakeholder consultations and the revised version received policy level approval from the Cabinet of Ministers in January 2020. 

Thereafter, further stakeholder consultations were conducted by the Bar Association and Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. In addition, the Justice Ministry, Attorney General, Central Bank and TRCSL provided observations on the draft bill during 2020 and further revisions were made to the bill.