EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) And What It Means For Singapore Organisations

In 2016, the European Union Member States issued a new body of rules on data protection - the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679, which will come into force on 25 May 2018.

Extra-territorial application

The GDPR has extra-territorial effect, and applies to organisations which are not established in the EU, but which offer goods or services to individuals in the EU, or which monitor the behaviour of individuals in the EU. This means that Singapore based organisations such as hotels, banks, insurance companies and e-commerce websites which offer goods or services to individuals located in the EU will all have to ensure that their practices and processes are compliant with the GDPR, failing which, there is risk that they may be subject to the penalties under the GDPR.