ASIA-PACIFIC IT INDUSTRY CALLS FOR REGIONAL DATA PRIVACY LAW HARMONIZATION

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9 (Bernama) -- The Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO), a grouping of national  IT industry associations representing 24 economies in the Asia Pacific region, has called for national governments to work on the harmonization of data privacy laws as a matter of priority, to promote regional trade and economic development while ensuring personal data is protected. 

 

ASOCIO’s call-to-action is contained in a policy guidance paper released at the 2019 ASOCIO-PIKOM Digital Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Titled "ASOCIO’s Policy Guidance on Data Privacy: Preserving Privacy while Enhancing Access to Personal Data with Greater Trust in Asian-Oceanian Region”  https://www.asocio.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ASOCIO-Privacy-Policy-FINAL-1.pdf

Member economies namely from Australia, Bangladesh, India, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand participated in developing this policy paper.

ASOCIO recognizes that the Asian and Oceanian region is potentially the centre of global digitalization, and its members are playing key roles to shape the future Digital Economy with increased cross-border trades of which trust is a key element.

ASOCIO Chairman, David Wong noted that ASOCIO, as a responsible stakeholder in the region, is seeking to underscore the importance of improving trust by protecting personal data across jurisdictions and at the same time promote increasing cross-border trades and collaborations.

“For this growth to be enabled and expand effectively, and for consumers and citizens to have trust and confidence, the data privacy protection agenda must be more common among Asian countries, more practically implementable and — concurrently — effective in ensuring reasonable protection of personal data.”

ASOCIO recommendation is based on three key approaches:

●   Risk-based,  reflecting the scale, data type/sensitivity, and transfer frequency;
●   Accountable, with mutual recognition of, and interoperability with, existing/planned data governance certification; and
●   Inclusive, where frequent, open consultations with data protection specialists, businesses, lawmakers and consumer groups occur transparently. 

“Collectively, these raise consumer trust, reduce compliance costs and minimize legal complexity,” Mr Wong said, “noting that adoption of these recommendations by business partners, consumers, policymakers and ASOCIO member businesses will promote freer, safeguarded data flows that enable regional economic growth and closer cooperations across the region.”

Mr Wong further added, “these principles are also the key elements of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and also APEC’s Cross Border Privacy Rules (CBPR).” 

ASOCIO is advocating and supporting these principles be adopted by all governments in the region to enhance trade, collaboration and most importantly cultivate the necessary trusts. The current situation of unwieldy fragmentation of laws and regulations, and country-centric focus are deemed not effectively protecting data privacy and especially when data cross the borders”.

Mr Wong also affirmed that ASOCIO and its national member associations stood ready to work with governments and industries, as well as regional inter-governmental organizations (ASEAN, APEC, EAF) to enable the development of coordinated and harmonized national laws.

SOURCE: Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO)