Omar Sherin, Technology Consulting Partner at PwC Middle East
Doha, Qatar: Qatar is a pioneer in adopting data protection and data privacy laws. The World Privacy Day on January 28 each year was adopted with the aim of highlighting the importance of preserving personal data for all users of the digital space. It aims to raise awareness of the importance of maintaining the privacy of personal data when used by technological means and to ensure the importance of achieving the principles of privacy and data integrity.
In an interview with The Peninsula, Omar Sherin (pictured), Technology Consulting Partner at PwC Middle East said, within the realm of data privacy, Qatar was the first country in the Gulf region to issue a data privacy and protection law which is law thirteen for 2016, and since then at least three more GCC countries followed Qatar and issued their own regulations and laws that borrowed several elements from the Qatari law.
The law successfully established an eco-system that protects the rights of the citizens and residents in Qatar and granted them the mechanisms to be in control of their personal data and information.
For example, entities operating in Qatar that hold personal information are required by the law to inform the data owners (i.e., Qatar’s residents and citizens) in case there is a potential breach or mishandling of their personal information and that this information might be at risk.
Another example is that any marketing SMS that is sent to a data owner through a proper marketing channel now has an “opt-out” feature that offers the data owner the right to be removed from this specific marketing campaign.
Highlighting the significance of data privacy law, he pointed out, the process to issue technical and complex laws such as the data privacy and data protection law is not a straightforward process and requires a certain level of maturity and cooperation between the government (The executive apparatus of the country) and the judicial system. Qatar had issued the law back in 2016 as of today it can still be considered as a pioneer in adopting data protection and data privacy laws.
Sherin said, Qatar is recognised as a regional pioneer in regulating cyber security when it issued the region’s first national cyber security standard back in 2009 and has since established and earned a reputation of being a very well-regulated market when it comes to cyber security.
Accordingly, for organisations operating in Qatar there is a certain level of cyber compliance that all regulated organisations and businesses operating in the state should adhere to, he added.
