Long-Awaited Personal Data Protection Law Aims To Take Data Privacy To Next Level

A. Introduction

After several years of deliberation and amid a long running epidemic of Personal Data breaches, the Indonesian Parliament finally passed the long-awaited Personal Data Protection Bill on 20 September 2022. The Bill has now been sent to the President for signing, after which it will be promulgated as law by publication in the State Gazette. As these steps are normally mere formalities, we will refer to the Bill as the Personal Data Protection Law ("PDP Law"). A bilingual version of the PDP Law, which we will update over time, can be accessed  here.

The PDP Law is largely modelled on the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"), the "gold standard" for Personal Data protection worldwide. Existing data privacy legislation, such as Law No 11 of 2008 on Electronic Information and Transactions, as amended by Law No. 19 of 2016, Government Regulation No. 71 of 2019 on the Provision of Electronic Systems and Transactions ("GR 71/2019")