The awaiting birth?

After 10 years, Malaysians are awaiting the birth of the Malaysia Personal Data Protection Bill, being an Act, soon. Now, it's in the second and third reading at Parliament. I predict it will be gazetted by end of this year, or perhaps, by the first quarter of 2010. Back in 2002, Professor Dr. Ida Madieha wrote a very interesting article on the Bill, by paraphrasing some of the relevant sections vis-a'-vis issues on e-commerce and privacy.

I fervently hope that the analysis and comments have been taken into consideration by the legislator and consultant. Once the Bill is ready to kick-off, there will be potential compliance costs. It is anticipated that organisations and companies are required to get ready with the potential transformation: internal compliance road shows, compliance costs, strategies and awareness for and to all Malaysian stakeholders on data protection. Particularly, the ICT and banking sectors. It's just the beginning for Malaysians.

Cursorily, a brief overview of other Asia Pacific countries on data protection and privacy is readable here (published by DLA Piper, as at March 2009).

Wondering how the Bill responds to RFID? (in Malaysia).