April

"2014 was a very eventful year for data privacy regulation in Asia and a number of significant regulatory developments, in particular the implementation of new, comprehensive ""European-style"" privacy laws in Singapore and Malaysia, the amendment of China's consumer protection law to include data privacy principles and increased financial penalties in South Korea.
Equally importantly, there were significant data security and data privacy breaches and enforcement actions across the region in 2014, with privacy mishaps consistently featuring in Asian headlines. These developments have meant immediate consequences in the form of regulatory action, sanctions and adverse publicity for those investigated or found to be on the wrong side of the law. These high profile incidents are also proving to have a broader impact by raising public awareness of privacy issues to levels never before seen and emboldening regulatory authorities to take action.Source Note: This article was first published in Data Protection Law & Policy in January 2015.
Source Note: This article was first published in Data Protection Law & Policy in January 2015."

The APEC Data Privacy Subgroup (DPS) and its parent committee, the Electronic Commerce Steering Group (ECSG), met for another round of negotiations and meetings. The principal focus of the meetings was implementing the APEC Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) system, developing a corollary APEC recognition mechanism for information processors, related work relevant to cross-border interoperability, and updating the APEC Privacy Framework. APEC needs to take steps to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the CBPR 's governance and operations infrastructure as more APEC economies join the system and more companies seek CBPR (and soon PRP) certification.

A new law in China taking affect in March of this year will provide businesses with a clearer understanding of what types of information are protected as consumer personal information in China. This new definition will clarify companies' obligations with respect to the use and processing of that information under other Chinese laws and regulations. A failure by businesses to recognise these new requirements can lead to onerous penalties including fines.