Privacy, Regulations, and Cybersecurity

CHAPTER 7Asia-Pacific Regulations

Privacy is the very essence of human existence. One wonders why the Indian Supreme Court took so long to reach that conclusion.

—Kalyan C. Kankanala,

Fun IP: Fundamentals of Intellectual Property

Asia, in its vastness and complexity, doesn't exactly lend itself to a continental overview the way that North America and Western Europe do. Luckily, we can start with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member states and fill in the blanks as necessary. Even then, we will certainly not be able to cover every single country in Asia—that alone would take a few volumes. By necessity, then, we will only deal with the major economic powers in Asia and suggest resources for your deeper, country-specific investigations. My two top recommendations are to start with the IAPP at www.iapp.org and then look at the international law firm DLA Piper's compendium on “Data Protection Laws of the World” at dlapiperdataprotection.com. You will also find many additional resources listed in the Bibliography section of the book.

Let's begin with the APEC member countries. These are: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, the United States, and Vietnam.

APEC, as we discussed in Chapter 3, developed its voluntary privacy framework in 2004. In 2011 APEC introduced the Cross-Border Privacy ...