The Law "On Personal Data" is planned to be adopted in the first half of 2019. This is stated in the report of the Prosecutor General of Belarus Alexander Konyuk, which he presented at the 5th World Internet Conference in Wuzhen (China), according to BELTA.
The Law "On Personal Data" is planned to be adopted in the first half of 2019. This is stated in the report of the Prosecutor General of Belarus Alexander Konyuk, which he presented at the 5th World Internet Conference in Wuzhen (China), according to BELTA.
This document is aimed at ensuring the protection of the rights and freedoms of individuals when processing their personal data, unifying the conditions and procedures for working with personal data in accordance with the requirements of international law, and establishing the rights of personal data subjects and the obligations of state bodies, legal entities and individuals in the sphere of working with them. "The draft law provides for additional guarantees against arbitrary and uncontrolled collection, storage, use, other processing, dissemination and provision of personal data of individuals," the report posted on the website of the Prosecutor General's Office states.
As Alexander Konyuk noted, the Internet and the digital environment open up completely new opportunities for communication and development. A citizen must have the opportunity to determine to whom and in what volume they transfer their personal data, to allow or prohibit its transfer to third parties, to know where and in what volume their personal data is stored, and to have the opportunity to demand its deletion.
At the same time, if an individual citizen has the right to refuse the protection of personal data, then society as a whole does not have such a right. "The state's adoption of citizens' right to digital self-determination allows for a compromise between private and public interests, and the establishment of legal regulation that can ensure effective protection of private and public interests without hindering digital progress," the Prosecutor General is confident.
This concept is the basis for the draft Law of Belarus "On Personal Data", the adoption of which is expected in the first half of 2019.
According to Alexander Konyuk, the implementation of digital telecommunication technologies, the "Internet of Things," the "Industrial Internet of Things," telemedicine, and the use of cloud services have elevated the development of society and the quality of life of citizens to a new level. However, global digitalization also has a downside. The private sphere is inexorably shrinking, and this is the cause for the greatest concern.
In January-September, 51% of users in Belarus encountered local threats on their digital devices, and 42% were subjected to cyberattacks on the internet. The number of detected banking "Trojans" increased from 1,424 to 1,976. This indicates that personal data has become an essential tool in the hands of criminals, used to commit crimes.
These threats necessitate state involvement as a regulator in ensuring the protection of personal data. Legal regulation in this area must, on the one hand, mitigate all threats and, simultaneously, create favourable conditions for the development of the IT business. As Alexander Konyuk noted, Belarus's experience in this regard deserves attention. Preferences for residents of the High-Tech Park (HTP) imply increased requirements for ensuring cybersecurity issues, including those related to the processing and storage of personal data. Non-compliance with HTP standards in this area prevents one from becoming a resident and operating under such favourable conditions.
Belarus is currently among the global top 5 countries in terms of IT service exports per capita. At the same time, the republic has never been the subject of scandals related to personal data security issues.