Data protection and Privacy laws in the Gulf- UAE

Customer data can make or break your company. Either condition depends on your reaction to the private data protection norms. If your organization deals with customer data and saving records, you must understand that protecting privacy is the primary concern. If you follow it well, then nothing to worry about at all. But if you do not, then you might be just messing around with laws and regulations.

The present work is majorly data-driven. It is an undeniable fact that data theft and privacy invasion is common these days. Data protection, on the other hand, is a tough job. So how to manage your data privacy along with an increase in productivity is the real challenge. Along with it, you have to remain compliant with regulatory norms. It is not just beneficial to your business growth and market value. It is a compulsion because it is LAW. You can't escape it.

Early it was only the western countries like the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada who adopted the laws for privacy protection. The privacy laws and its enforcement have become stricter in the present times. Middle East countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, and UAE have also adopted new regulation policies. Privacy protection and compliance with privacy laws have widened nowadays.

It is prominent to know that who all are compliant with these privacy laws and what are the consequences of failing the compliances.

Being a company with bulky data storage and transmission processes, the knowledge of privacy laws and compliance is equally important.

What is Privacy Protection?

It is not for the first time that privacy protection has come into the picture. It has existed for years. It is only now that every single person is affected by privacy and data preservation. Every individual and established organization has personal details. Such information is intimate and confidential. One cannot take the risk of personal data leakage to an unknown or undisguised group or individuals. It could lead to mishandling and serious consequences.

Privacy protection is, therefore, about saving one’s personal information and data from illegitimate usage.

Many companies and organizations have access to the personal data of clients, customers, and employees. It is the core responsibility of the department of security and head of security officer to prevent any data breach. The organization has serious liabilities if the data is lost or falls into the wrong hands for illegal work. To prevent mishappenings, very well-defined laws are established that must be followed by organizations. Only the organizations that stay compliant with such norms can maintain their reputation.

Who needs Privacy Protection?

The most precise answer to this question is that every individual reserves the right to protect private data and information. Every industry, small or big, has access to confidential information. The data of thousands of customers are available with the business houses, and not just one or a few hundred. The collection of data can be in the form of documents or electronic media.

But every individual holds the right to get protected from data theft or invasion. Businesses and private firms that have access to such confidential documents have the responsibility to protect it from unwanted interferences.

The people belonging to the following categories are majorly responsible for organization’s data management and security.

Organizations like hospitals, banks, and financial data holders are more obliged to follow the privacy protection regulations. Since the data held by them is more critical and private, the consequences of poor data management are severe. Legal firms with confidential client’s data must pay special attention to the privacy maintenance. Huge penalties can be charged on irresponsible firms. It could lead to the suspension of workers or even shutting down the organization forever.

Privacy Rules in the World

Globally, the concept of protecting privacy is becoming generalized. The lawmakers are regularly updating and bringing in new regulation policies for boosting privacy. The concerned bodies in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and many more are taking serious steps towards implementing the privacy laws.

Efforts are made to design effective policies, implement them, and regulate the rules in various organizations around the world.

The federal privacy rules in the UNITED STATES

Financial laws

The data protection in financial departments such as-banks, insurance companies, and other similar financial industries are governed by the Gramm Leach Bliley Act (GLBA). This law protects non-public personal information. It imposes the financial companies to secure NPI. On unauthorized access, the customers should be notified about NPI loss.

A penalty of $100,000 on financial bodies can be imposed. A fine of up to $10,000 for an office director for privacy laws violation. The punishments for persons involved in breaches are severe. Detention/Imprisonment of directors or officers who can’t comply with the regulations.

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) inhibits the use of financial data such as creditworthiness, credit capacity, general information, personal details, employment, and insurance. It imposes the destruction of credit cards, receipts, personal information, and more when not in use. The financial bodies are obliged to respond to data theft. A fine of $1000 per person to the failing companies.

The payment and credit card companies should comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS).

Healthcare laws

The Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) secures personal information regarding health status, payment, or transactions. The privacy rule inhibits the collection and regulation of personal information. The security rules protect such data. On violation of any data privacy policy, a fine of $1.5 million can be imposed.

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) is an expanded version of the previous law. It is similar to the previous law. It emphasizes the application of privacy rules and security rules. The penalties for HIPAA violation is also high. It applies to organizations that collect private health data or any other business associated with health data.

Communication laws

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) regulates communication practices over phone calls. It maintains calls and text messages to residential phones and mobile phones. The calls made from companies for marketing using the pre-recorded messages are regulated by this telecommunication act.

Education laws

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protect student rights. This right empowers students to check their educational records and their accuracy. They have the right to withhold the disclosure of their personal information as a student without their or parents’ consent.

The federal privacy rules in the EUROPE

Data protection in Europe is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) introduced in 2018. It is the primary law that regulates companies and protects the European citizen's personal data.

The GDPR guidelines apply to every member of the European Union. It aims at protecting consumer data across all European Union countries. Any company that deals with European citizen data irrespective of their physical location is compliant with GDPR guidelines.

For non-compliance to the GDPR, there are strict penalties. A fine of up to 2% or 4% of the annual global turnover on failed compliances.

The federal privacy rules in the MIDDLE EAST-UAE

The GCC, an alliance of the Middle Eastern countries of Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, have no direct federal privacy policies. However, data protection and privacy is regulated.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia follows the Sharia law for protecting individual privacy. Specific codes are enacted strictly for maintaining privacy.
The anti-cybercrime law is against those individuals or groups who illegally access personal data from electronic devices without any permission. The electronic transaction law regulates electronic communications in Saudi Arabia.
The healthcare practice code maintains the privacy of patient's data.
KSA Monetary Agency Regulations for Consumer Credit Regulates the information exchange between two parties regarding financial issues.
Telecommunications law strictly regulates the service providers from sharing customer data with any outsider. It also inhibits called tracking of the customers.

Qatar

The Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) protects data and regulates privacy by the Data Protection Regulations of 2005.

UAE-Dubai

Dubai city in UAE is also under particular data privacy guidelines. DIFC and data protection regulations are in charge of data security.

The upgraded 2020 law of DIFC promises data protection to the consumers utilizing services in a Dubai company. This law is very similar to the European GDPR. The accountability of the authority has been enforced. The Data Protection Officer (DPO) is appointed for consultations and regulations. The rights of consumers are exercised. Immediate reporting of any security breach to the concerned authorities. The Binding Corporate Rules (BCR) is recognized by this law. The profound protection principles remain the same.

The European regulation by GDPR affects the Middle East countries. The Middle East companies which perform functions on the European residents of the EU are compliant with GDPR. The GDPR has provisions such as the appointment of Data Protection Officers (DPO), sanctions, data breach notifications, representatives, accountability, rights of individuals, and more. The location of the company does not matter. If a Dubai company deals with the private data of European citizens, then it is compulsory to abide by the GDPR guidelines.

Violations of any of the provisions can cause immeasurable damage to the reputation along with financial losses.

Risks Identification

Globally, 90% of the organization believe that data risks are due to malicious insiders. Every single department in any organization or company works on data. There is always the presence of critical, sensitive, and important information. Without this data, the functioning/operations are not feasible. Therefore, data needs special attention for protection, and security. The different departments in your organization that could be the center of the data breach are the following.

Accounting

This section has all the information about the financial status of employees, workers, customers, and more. Regulating the details on contracts, invoices, customer lists, payroll statements, credit card information, financial applications, internal reports, supplier information, and more is necessary. It is the most common target of infiltrators since they acquire information to perform monetary theft.

Research

This section is the most critical one. All the innovative and new business development ideas are handled by it. Information theft is a common problem in the research and development section. The product plans, marketing strategies, reports, new product development, prototypes, illustrations, appraisals, formulas, test results and more should be securely kept. The breach of such information can cause heavy losses in the organization's future.

Sales

This department in the organization directly deals with the customers. It has a complete list and contact details of customers, their financial information, application forms, and more. The marketing department deals with strategic plans, samples of products, budgets, and forecasts. This data available in the sales and marketing department should be accessible to only a group of core workers.

Information technology

This department is the most ignored section of any organization. Most companies should financially and physically invest in the IT section. The confidential data stored in hard drives, compact discs, zip disk, memory sticks, clouds, and more have to be seriously regulated by experts. The human error of forgetting electronic devices in public places can cost a lifetime to the company’s welfare.

Human resources

This principal section possesses data on employees and documents. The loss of information from the HR department is a bad sign for any organization. The job applications, health documents, medical records, performance appraisals, payroll information, training information, and manuals are stored in the HR department. It is most susceptible to data loss since most of the workers have access to this department data section. It may appear to be a small and negligible area, but it plays a significant role in an organization's development.

Management

A company’s management and regulation lies in the hand of the concerned higher authorities. Most of the areas under them are crucial. Budgets, list of customers, legal paperwork, forecasts, innovative futuristic plans, correspondence, and more lies in this department. The growth of a company depends on how these data are secured. Hence, special attention must be given to the management department.

Procurement

This department has corporate records, supplier’s records, purchase orders, specification documents, financial data, and credit card information. This department is vulnerable to data breach and information theft equally. The higher officials at a Corporate must regularly prepare assessment reports in this department.

Best Practices for Protection

Always keep the priority of information security at the top. Being extra cautious and proactive for privacy protection is the best practice. Considering all the aspects of security and taking actions unhurriedly would be helpful. Some practices that would unquestionably bring positive changes in your workplace are discussed in details here.

Realize the obligation to the law

Maintaining data privacy is not limited to your company’s ethics, but it is an obligation. Identify your compliance with the laws and enact judiciously.

Regular risk assessment in every department

Each section in an organization has vulnerabilities to security threats. Conducting regular risk assessments to identify potential threats is a great idea.

Well-structured and detailed privacy policies for confidential data security

Devise Effective privacy policies for your company’s welfare. Define the role of every worker and his/her responsibilities towards data security. Kindly mention the punishments and liabilities for failing to maintain privacy and security.

Step-wise protocol on confidential data collection till disposal

Write down the steps to be followed by any working individual on data collection. Mention how the data should be collected, where should be kept, who can have the access and usage, retention of data, storage of data, its processing, disclosure, and finally destruction on non-usage.

Establish a group of security experts

Choose the best among the best. Make a team of the most trustworthy, hard-working, and knowledgeable employees. Assign designations and duties according to their expertise in the field. Make them the responsible group for frequent security audits.

Monitor security protocols and documents

Assign a Data Protection Officer (DPO) or a security officer to regulate the working of other security employees. The DPO shall keep track of the paper documents, electronic devices, and other confidential resources.

Secure electronic devices

Electronic devices such as hard disk, memory sticks, flash drives, and local office computers have the bulk of organization data. Keep the devices safely and destruct them completely on no use.

EndoShred will safely destroy your electronic devices whenever you want them to. Getting rid of storage devices could not become easy.

Ensure the clean desk policy

This policy has proved beneficial to many Western companies who are compliant with the privacy protection laws. Clean desk policy ensures that the working desk of employees is cleaned up regularly. The pile of documents/paper sheets lying unattended on the table must be removed. The unwanted documents should be collected and shredded in a secure environment.

Partnering with EndoShred will guide your company towards the Clean Desk Policy efficiently.

Regular training and workshops for employees

The individual is assigned for looking after the security system of an organization must be regularly updated about their duties. Conducting training programs and workshops would enlighten the employees more often. Alertness and pro-activeness are the key features that should be embedded in the employees via training techniques.

Security audits to monitor the effectiveness of laws

Never forget that privacy policies exist in your organization. Reminding oneself and co-workers about the importance of monitoring data privacy will help in preventing security breaches. Audits of different departments such as accounting, management, human resources, marketing and sales, and more are very crucial regularly.

Promoting discipline

While being friendly is the primary key for maximum productivity from workers, promoting an environment of discipline and strictness is critically important too. Hold the workers accountable for data loss or breaches, take actions against them, and set examples. Ensure zero tolerance towards casual behaviour in work and document management.

How EndoShred assists in Compliance to Privacy Laws?

We are one of the most reliable privacy organization in UAE. We provide information security and the destruction of confidential data. We protect your business against intrusions and theft by securely destroying the documents on-site in our high-speed shredding trucks.

We are available for shredding at any organisation in the UAE. Our convenient mechanism of destruction is trusted by hundreds of organizations in Dubai and nearby cities.

We are totally aware of the UAE privacy policies and penalties. Our trained employees know their jobs quite well. We work in accordance with the regulatory norms ensuring privacy protection. We are here to assist you through the entire process of document disposal in a lawful way.

What do we provide?

Why choose us?

How we assist in compliance with privacy laws?

When you decide to partner with us, you take the best decision of your life. The methodology adopted by us is completely regulated according to privacy laws.

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