With a view to bringing Singapore’s personal data protection landscape up to date and in line with international standards, Singapore passed the Personal Data Protection (Amendment) Act 2020 on 2 November 2020 (“PDPA Amendment”).
The PDPA Amendment brings the most significant changes to the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (“PDPA”) since the PDPA first came into force on 1 July 2014.
The PDPA Amendment will take effect in phases. The following key changes took effect on 1 February 2021:
- New mandatory data breach notification (new Part VIA)
- New offences concerning mishandling of personal data
- Changes to the consent framework
- PDPA Amendment Regulations (in addition to the 2021 Data Breach Regulations, a set of regulations made under the PDPA Amendment also came into force on 1 February 2021)
- Right to data portability
