Between 23 January 2014 and 13 February 2014, the Personal Data Protection Commission (the “Commission”) conducted a public consultation on proposed advisory guidelines on the application of the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (the “PDPA”) to scenarios faced in the real estate agency and telecommunication sectors. The proposed sector-specific guidelines are in addition to the more general ones issued in September 2013 (advisory guidelines on key concepts and selected topics) and December 2013 (guidelines on the Do Not Call (“DNC”) provisions).
The PDPA contains two main sets of provisions, covering personal data protection and the DNC Registry, which organisations must comply with. The DNC provisions came into force on 2 January 2014 while the provisions relating to personal data protection are expected to be operative on 2 July 2014.
Proposed advisory guidelines for real estate agency sector
The Commission drafted the guidelines for real estate agency sector (the “REA guidelines”) in consultation with the Council for Estate Agencies. The REA guidelines provide guidance on the type of information typically collected, used or disclosed by estate agents or sales persons that could fall within the purview of the PDPA and how the personal data protection provisions would be applicable to common scenarios such as the use or disclosure of personal data collected from clients or prospective clients.
Proposed advisory guidelines for telecommunication sector
The Commission developed the guidelines for the telecommunication sector (the “Telco guidelines”) in consultation with the Info-communications Development Authority of Singapore. The Telco guidelines address the type of information typically collected, used or disclosed in the telecommunications context that could fall within the definition of personal data, such as telephone numbers and mobile equipment identity numbers.
Reference materials
The following documents are available from the Commission website www.pdpc.gov.sg:
