Businesses in Qatar to focus on protection and privacy of personal data
29/03/21
The protection and privacy of personal data is the responsibility of businesses in Qatar. More and more people are aware of the relevance of their personal data and the value it holds and intend to avoid any use, abuse or misuse by businesses.
The importance of privacy and its challenges for SMBs and SMEs were the theme of a webinar hosted by the Ministry of Transport & Communication (MoTC) recently.
Qatar was the first country in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to implement a Personal Data Privacy Protection Law (PDPPL) to protect the data of people. It was enacted as the Law No. 13 of 2016.
The law was influenced by the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) which is applicable in the European Union and the European Economic Area and has similarities with other legal frameworks such as the principles of fair and lawful processing of personal data, including requirements to disclose to individuals the purposes for which personal data will be processed before processing it, obligations to implement appropriate measures for the security of personal data and that electronic marketing to individuals may only be carried out on the basis of the individual’s prior consent.
More recently, the MoTC issued a set of guidelines to help the businesses to understand the data privacy protection law and to comply with the rules.
The data privacy protection law relates to any personal data that is processed electronically or non-electronically and applies to private and public organisations or institutions in the State of Qatar.
Examples of personal data are names, addresses, identification numbers, CCTV footage or videos and photos while sensitive personal data relates to race and religion as well as data on physical and mental health, family members and records of criminal offences or in other words data that could or would be harmful, if leaked.
Please click on the link and reach out to learn more about the Personal Data Privacy Protection Law (PDPPL) and the initiatives of the Ministry of Transport & Communication (MoTC) as well as Business Start Up Qatar.
