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Overview: An article on UAE's new Data Law

Published on : 28 Nov 2021
Author(s):Several

An article on UAE's New Data Law

Nowadays, most of the transactions we do today is digital and information of individuals are no longer in pen and paper but it’s in zeros and ones, so for individuals, it is very important to secure its data than ever.

The UAE introduced a new comprehensive data law in the country. This New Data Law is being brought as part of the national programme called “Projects of the 50”, which is a series of national strategic projects and initiatives being launched by the UAE authorities. This law has been launched to underpin the nation’s development and growth for the future and ties in with the UAE’s 50th anniversary this year as a nation. In this 50 big projects are being unveiled to mark the occasion of the country’s 50th anniversary and to establish a strategic pathway for the ongoing development of the country for the next 50 years.

Mr Omar Al Olama, who is the UAE’s Minister of Artificial Intelligence and state for the digital economy said that the data protection laws have been drafted after considering every single law on the planet, with the help of major technologies companies.

At present, UAE does not have a singular comprehensive data protection law; this would be the UAE’s first comprehensive data protection law to operate across the country’s mainland.  But other existing laws have been used to deal with privacy and data security matters and certain data protection provisions have applied to certain sectors. However, Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) already have data protection regulations that are broadly on par with the comprehensive USA and UK’s data protection laws.

The data law will give individuals the freedom to control the way their personal information is used, stored and shared. This law also specifies that:

  1. It allows an individual to keep their data safe by gaining an understanding of how the information is used and if an individual doesn’t like how the information is being used, so they have always an option to ask the organization to delete the data.
  2. A certain amount of transparency will be there regarding the information one has and what the organisation is doing with it.
  3. No burden on SMEs and international companies as this law have the lowest cost of compliance.
  4. Strikes a balance between privacy, cost, compliance and commerce.

The Data Law will have a broader look of approaching globally and addressing the large number of international enterprises that are incorporated and located in UAE and function globally. UAE in their announcement of the law underlined the fact that it is not going to have a high compliance cost. It is said that this new data protection law will have a flawless and consistent transfer of data internationally.

The New Data Law will introduce certain rights for individuals such as the right to information, right to access, right to be forgotten. When the personal information is stored and monetized in some way or used for wrongful marketing purposes, so there will be certain provisions to stop this and it will ensure that the information will be used only with the consent and that it does not harm someone’s privacy.

Conclusion:

The data protection law is a great initiative towards the data protection regime. This law has become very important because of the capacity to have visibility into how organizations handle that data, what they do with the data, how long they hold on to it and to be able to ask organizations questions about how their data is being used. This will be a major and very great change regarding future aspects.

 

 

 

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