2017-2018 Further Update to Graham Greenleaf’s Asian Data Privacy Laws – Trade and Human Rights Perspectives

Abstract

In July 2017 I published on SSRN an update from mid-2014 to mid-2017 of my Asian Data Privacy Laws – Trade and Human Rights Perspectives (Oxford University Press, 2014), to accompany the publication of the paperback edition in July 2017. This further update aims to cover developments to 31 October 2018.

The content of this update first covers International Agreements affecting privacy which are of relevance to Asia. Summaries follow of developments in the fifteen months prior to November 2018 from any of the 26 jurisdictions in Asia, considered region-by-region (North-East Asia; South-East Asia; and South Asia).

This period has been a very significant one for Asian data privacy laws, with the most important developments being:

* The anti-privacy provisions in the 'new TPP', the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) free trade agreement;

* The initial impact of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on Asian jurisdictions;

* The draft adequacy decision concerning japan, by the European Commission;

* Amendments to Korea's 'Network Act', and their significance for Korea's adequacy applicaition to the EU;

* Strongly GDPR-influenced draft Bills in both Thailand and Indonesia;

* Vietnam's Cybersecurity Law and its strong data localisation provisions;

* The Indian Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Puttaswamy v Union of India that India has a fundamental constitutional right of privacy, and its decision by majority a year later that India's biometric ID system, the Aadhaar, while constitutionally capable of validity, was implemented by legislation which is in part invalid;

* The Report by the India's Srikrishna Committee, and its GDPR and Chinese influenced draft data protection Bill.

Keywords: data protection, privacy, Asia, free trade agreements, India, China, EU, GDPR