Hello and greetings from Singapore!

We are now in the lead-up to Chinese New Year, so I hope you have your red packets ready.

The coming year looks to be a busy one for data privacy professionals in the Asia-Pacific region. A recent study in India demonstrates the pace at which new technologies are being adopted. The study shows that 63 percent of Indian organizations are considering implementing artificial intelligence, and 66 percent are examining user behavioral analytics in 2018. The adoption of this new wave of data technologies will raise new issues and risks for data security and privacy, and it will be interesting to see how customers, businesses and regulators respond.  

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In Australia, where mandatory breach notification laws are set to come into effect later this month, car-sharing company GoGet faced customer criticism for waiting six months to notify its customers of a data breach. GoGet had notified the police when it became aware that the customer data had been exposed and had been advised by the authorities to delay notifying its customers while the police investigation was underway. It is a good example of the difficult tension between customers’ expectations of being informed when their personal data has been exposed and the real-world pressures of law enforcement. 

It also highlights the need for Australian businesses to make sure they are ready for the implementation of mandatory breach notification laws that will soon be coming their way.

Moving on to other developments in the region, the Singapore Personal Data Protection Commission has released a guide to anonymizing data sets. The challenge in anonymization is always to make sure that the data cannot be manipulated to allow for the re-identification of individuals. The PDPC has recommended that data users obtain specialist advice and training when engaging in anonymization, particularly if the anonymized data is to be released into the public domain.

Enjoy the Chinese New Year festivities. Until next time!