Having strong privacy and data protection practices are critical to business success. Eager to embrace more advanced international standards, Asia Pacific countries have started to tighten data protection regulations. However, the uneven regulatory landscape due to the massive cultural and geopolitical complexities across the region makes it difficult for companies in Asia Pacific to ensure effective data protection.
According to a new report by Forrester on “Privacy, Data Protection, And Cross-Border Data Transfer Trends In Asia Pacific,” 48% of enterprise security decision-makers in the region report that they and their teams are actively working to protect customers’ personal information from cybercriminals and fraudsters; while 47% say that they’re working to protect that information from privacy abuses.
Asia Pacific is still in the process of catching up to regions like Europe in the creation of regulatory frameworks for privacy and data protection at the country and regional levels.
However, there is progress.
Privacy laws in some countries have quickly changed to address breach notification, encryption adoption, cross-border data transfer, and noncompliance penalties, with South Korea and Japan leading the way.
Countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, Malaysia, and New Zealand are making progress, and have some of the more well-defined data protection regulations in the region.
However, many other countries in the region, including India, Thailand, and China, are still in the process of developing a stance on data transfer, and most of them do not have overarching data protection legislation in place.