Cabinet agrees to put off enforcement of some articles of data protection law
The Cabinet on Tuesday (May 12) acknowledged the necessity for a royal decree to be issued to postpone the enforcement of some Articles of the Personal Data Protection Act by a year.
The Digital Economy and Society Ministry will propose a draft of the decree for the Cabinet’s consideration soon.
The Articles under consideration are Article 2 related to personal data protection, Article 3 related to the rights of the owner of the data, Article 5 detailing complaints, Article 6 related to civil liability and Article 7 in relation to penalties. They were originally scheduled to go into effect from May 27.
The ministry said if these Articles are legislated as scheduled, then they could affect state agencies, private companies and the general public as they are not prepared to comply with the entire law just yet.
The Covid-19 pandemic has also made it difficult for companies to spend on adjusting their IT and other relevant systems in line with the law. Postponing the enforcement of the Articles will give them time to prepare so they can be in full compliance of the legislation.
