Bahrain Law On Personal Data Protection: Technology Developments In The Kingdom

The Kingdom of Bahrain enacted the Law Number 30 of 2018 i.e. the Personal Data Protection Law (the PDPL). Bahrain, under the PDPL, shall establish a Personal Data Protection Authority that would enforce this law and oversee the implementation and issues cropping out of it.

The law is applicable to individuals located and engaged in economic activities within the Kingdom of Bahrain as well as the PDPL provides for the liability nexus concept that individuals and organizations not situated in Bahrain but process or handles data related to Bahrain or uses any route of processing data through Bahrain.

The law follows defines the following main roles:

data manager i.e. person with decision regarding use and means of data processing; data processor i.e. person who handles data for and on behalf of the data manager. The PDPL definesdata or personal data as information related to a specific individual with particular identifying mechanism such as personal ID number or physical, cultural or economic factors. Also, PDPL deals with concept ofsensitive personal data that reveals whether directly or indirectly race, ethnicity, political affiliations, religious beliefs, union affiliation, criminal record or health or sexual life. The PDPL definesprocessing organization, collection, storage, retrieval or revelation of personal data in relation to any...