Application of the Personal Data Protection Act
The PDPA covers personal data stored in electronic and non-electronic forms. The data protection provisions in the PDPA (parts III to VI) generally do not apply to:
* Any individual acting in a personal or domestic basis.
* Any employee acting in the course of his or her employment with an organisation.
* Any public agency or an organisation in the course of acting on behalf of a public agency in relation to the collection, use or disclosure of the personal data. You may wish to refer to the Personal Data Protection (Statutory Bodies) Notification 2013 for the list of specified public agencies.
* Business contact information. This refers to an individual’s name, position name or title, business telephone number, business address, business electronic mail address or business fax number and any other similar information about the individual, not provided by the individual solely for his or her personal purposes.
These rules are intended to be the baseline law which operates as part of the law of Singapore. It does not supersede existing statutes, such as the Banking Act and Insurance Act but will work in conjunction with them and the common law.
Benefits of PDPA - An Overview
There are clear benefits for an organisation to comply with PDPA. Two key benefits are to build trust among stake holders and to avoid hefty fines in the unlikely event of a breach.
In addition, the PDPA does give individuals better control over their personal data and allow the individual to check on how organisations are collecting, using and disclosing their data.
Learn more about PDPA in Singapore here!
How will Implementing PDPA benefit my Company?
Gives Greater Control
The process of collecting personal data is transparent and customer will know the purpose of the data collection and will be assured that personal information collected will only be used for this purpose and not other purposes that are not specified or made known to the customer at the point of data collection.
Builds Trust & Confidence
Builds trust and confidences between your customers and your organisation.
A customer feels assured knowing that they are dealing with a company that does not comprimises on personal data and ensures that it is collected and managed in complete PDPA compliance with the law.
Reduces Unsolicited Messages
Customer will now know who they are giving their personal data to and also decide whether it is necessary to provide this personal data to the company collecting it.
Customers be assured that they will only receive messages for the purpose in which they subscribe to; they can also choose to opt into the DNC Registry and opt for the Do Not Call Registry and Do Not Text Registry and this helps reduce unsolicited messages that they will recieve.
