Data Protection in the Pacific: What are your obligations?

In comparison with most of the world, co-ordinated data protection and privacy legislation in the Pacific is unsophisticated – in fact, it is pretty much non-existent. With this in mind, can telecommunications and technology companies operating in the Pacific (Operators) do what they want with confidential customer information and data? Of course not!

Operators collecting, storing and using personal information of consumers in Pacific jurisdictions[1] are likely to be bound by:

1. a common law duty of confidentiality; and
2. obligations contained in local telecommunications legislation.

Generally, the obligations contained in local telecommunications legislation will mirror common law confidentiality obligations.