Ecuador: Privacy Bill Introduced, to regulate public, private use of personal information

dataguidance.com reported Juan Javier Canessa, Partner at Larrea & Canessa, highlighted, “Based on the fact that up to this date Ecuador does not have a uniform law regarding protection and management of personal databases, we consider positive the intention to issue such a law that gathers and develops non-existing concepts such as ‘sensitive data,’ ‘data controller’ vs. ‘data processor,’ ‘consent’ and ‘international data transfer.'”

The National Assembly announced, on 21 July 2016, that its President, Gabriela Rivadeneira, presented a bill on the Protection of Privacy and Personal Data (‘the Bill’). The Bill sets out the rationale behind its introduction, highlighting that there is a necessity in Ecuador to regulate the public and private use of personal information and start an awareness process on the same in order to tackle the risks that the development and expansion of information technology and communications bring.

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The Bill would create the National Authority for Personal Data Protection to oversee compliance with the law and imposes a requirement on organisations to register their databases on a national register, which will be managed by the former. Sanctions for violations are also outlined, including fines, the temporary suspension of databases and even permanent closure.

Canessa noted, “We remain concerned about the creation of a governmental entity with very broad powers to control and impose penalties. We also found the state interference on this topic worrying, since it even requires the registration of private databases in a governmental public record, which could end up creating several problems for database users in general.”

The Bill’s preamble highlights that although the 2008 Constitution provides for the right to privacy under Article 66, in practice, personal information which should only be provided by the data subject has become relatively simple to access.

Pedro Hajj, Senior Associate at FERRERE, stated, “It is important for our legal system to include a privacy law in order to protect the personal information of the people. Many public and private institutions handle sensitive and confidential information that need to be protected according to our constitutional rights.” Read Article