Data Privacy Law in Singapore: The Personal Data Protection Act 2012

Abstract

Singapore enacted the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (PDPA) in 2012, establishing a baseline standard of data protection in Singapore for the private sector. The PDPA sets out a comprehensive regulatory framework, establishing a data protection authority and an appellate panel, and imposes nine data protection obligations on organizations. The data protection obligations under the PDPA are enforceable by private action and by public enforcement. Two recent issues arising out of the application of the PDPA are: data anonymization and the business contact information exclusion. Apart from the PDPA, Singapore has enacted sector-specific data privacy regimes, governing areas such as banking and human biomedical research.

Keywords: data protection, Singapore

JEL Classification: K00