AIMA APAC Webinar: Singapore Personal Data Protection Act Amendments

Singapore Singapore China Japan Hong Kong Australia

This webinar provides an overview of recently proposed Personal Data Protection Act amendments in Singapore, and analyses the implications on asset managers, asset servicers, and private wealth managers who may be involved in processing personal data in Singapore or servicing Singapore clients from outside Singapore.

On 14 May 2020, Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) and the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) issued a consultation paper inviting feedback on the draft Personal Data Protection (Amendment) Bill, including related amendments to the Spam Control Act (SCA). The consultation closes on 28 May 2020. Certain noteworthy proposed amendments include:

It is proposed to increase the maximum financial penalty for data breaches under the Personal Data Protection Act from S$1 million to up to 10% of an organisation’s annual gross turnover in Singapore, or S$1 million, whichever is the higher. By comparison, the EU's GDPR has a revenue-based maximum financial penalty of 4% of an entity's global annual turnover, or €20 million (S$30.7 million), whichever is the higher.
Mandatory data breach notification for a data breach that (i) results, or is likely to result, in significant harm to the individuals to whom any personal data affected by a data breach relates or (ii) is of a significant scale.
Notification timeline has been set for no later than three calendar days after the day the organisation determines that the data breach meets the notification criteria.

We welcome any feedback or questions from AIMA members for this consultation. If you can send them through to our panel here it will be addressed accordingly during the course of the panel or incorporated in a future submission before the 28 May 2020 deadline.