Is your personal data safe from hackers? New law proposed to protect Oman

A new draft law to protect the data of every resident in Oman has been passed on to the Ministry of Legal Affairs for approval, the Information Technology Authority has revealed.

The proposed law is designed to protect private information and regulate who has legal access to it, as well as lay out penalties for those found abusing information in Oman.

ID card numbers, addresses and even location data will be better protected under the planned new law, experts say.

Globally, there have been a number of data leaks which have resulted in blackmail attempts and thefts from bank accounts.

Oman has remained largely unscathed by this – and tech watchdogs want to ensure it remains that way.

The ITA has been framing the law for the last two years, a spokeswoman revealed, and it has now been passed to Oman’s Ministry of Legal Affairs for approval before being submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers.

“The world is witnessing a massive change and continuous developments in the field of information and communication technology, and the increasing use of high-speed computing systems that can save and handle large amounts of data.

“This will definitely affect data protection regulation that will have a large impact on the way data is collected and managed,” according to an ITA spokeswoman.

“According to the law, personal data, which has a special emphasis in law, will refer to any identification number, location data, service provided, online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that person,” she added.

“In light of the directives of His Majesty to simplify procedures and transactions, and the provision of government services electronically, dealing with data — especially personal data — has become necessary. Therefore, the need to have a law regulating the issue of dealing with personal data and providing higher protection,” the official said.

“The ITA organised three sessions to discuss the law draft with specialists and community. The first session was held at COMEX 2015 to get feedback of specialists in the law articles. Then the second session was held at Salalah festival 2015. The third session was held with SQU College of law academicians to get their feedback.