You are using an outdated browser and your browsing experience will not be optimal. Please update to the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. Install Microsoft Edge

May 9, 2024

Thailand Releases Master Plan for Personal Data Protection

Subscribe to Updates

On April 29, 2024, Thailand’s Office of the Personal Data Protection Committee (PDPC) issued the master plan for personal data protection, which outlines the PDPC’s strategies for developing and enhancing the data protection framework in Thailand from 2024 to 2027. A draft of this four-year plan had previously been released for a public hearing on November 27, 2023.

Overview

The master plan sets out the long-term direction for the protection of personal data in Thailand, analyzing the current landscape, challenges, and obstacles encountered since the full enactment of the Personal Data Protection Act B.E. 2562 (2019) (PDPA). It aims to align with Thailand’s National Security Policy and Plan for 2024–2027 and focuses on key sectors in its initial two years. These sectors are:

  • Public security and key government services;
  • Retail and e-commerce;
  • Information and communication technology and telecommunications;
  • Finance, investment, and insurance;
  • Public health;
  • Tourism; and
  • Education.

Objectives

The master plan’s goals include increasing organizational compliance with the PDPA, reducing data breaches, updating the PDPA to reflect current circumstances, introducing various PDPC e-services, and enhancing Thailand’s global competitiveness in data privacy and personal data protection. It sets targets and indicators of the plan’s success, such as achieving a 100% PDPA compliance rate across all sectors in Thailand and raising Thailand’s digital competitiveness to at least 30th in the World Digital Competitiveness Rankings from the IMD World Competitiveness Center.

Strategic Initiatives

To achieve these objectives, the master plan introduces four strategic initiatives:

  • Effective and balanced PDPA enforcement: Develop standards, principles, criteria, tools, indicators, and data privacy governance, including law enhancements. A recent example of this is the PDPC’s launch of the Personal Data Protection Surveillance Centre (PDPC Eagle Eye) to monitor data breaches.
  • Knowledge and trust enhancement: Build human capacity and trust by enhancing knowledge through initiatives like the forthcoming data protection officer (DPO) course that is certified by the PDPC.
  • Digital economy and society promotion: Enhance collaboration across the private and public sectors, both domestically and internationally, to increase personal data protection capabilities and create a sustainable regulatory network.
  • R&D and technology adoption: Support research and technology adoption to enhance competitive capabilities, including implementation of a data protection sandbox and the hosting of an international data protection summit.

The recently released master plan not only provides systematic strategies for the PDPC but also shows the PDPC’s proactive approach to data protection. Private entities can ensure their compliance with the PDPA by upholding the required data privacy standards and staying alert for upcoming moves from the PDPC.

For more information on the PDPC’s master plan, or on any aspect of personal data protection in Thailand, please contact Tilleke & Gibbins’ data privacy team at [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected].

Related Professionals

Industries

Technology

Location

RELATED INSIGHTS​ 

June 19, 2024
Vietnam’s financial landscape is set to further transform on July 1, 2024, when the government’s long-awaited Decree No. 52/2024/ND-CP dated May 15, 2024 (“Decree 52”), will officially replace Decree No. 101/2012/ND-CP dated November 22, 2012, on non-cash payments (“Decree 101”). Decree 52 marks an important milestone by introducing the country’s first-ever legal definition of e-money. In addition, the decree brings forth new updates to regulations governing payment and intermediary payment services, laying the groundwork for more comprehensive guidance that will be provided in draft circulars now being developed by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV). Non-Cash Payment Instruments The new definition of non-cash payment instruments under Decree 52 expands upon the previous definition in Decree 101. Notably, it clearly specifies the issuing entities as payment service providers, financial companies licensed to issue credit cards, and e-wallet service providers. Additionally, the new definition further clarifies that bank cards include debit, credit, and prepaid cards, and adds e-wallets to the list of non-cash payment instruments. Unlawful non-cash payment instruments are still defined as those that are not otherwise specified. E-Money Prior to Decree 52, the concept of e-money lacked a precise legal definition, despite its growing prevalence in forms like prepaid cards and e-wallets. The absence of a clear framework for e-money led to confusion with terms like “cryptpcurrency” and “virtual currency” and left significant ambiguity on whether e-money includes certain instruments, such as online game cards and mobile money. Decree 52 addresses this issue by clearly defining e-money as value in Vietnamese dong (VND) stored electronically and prepaid by customers to banks, foreign bank branches, and e-wallet service providers. It also specifically designates e-wallets and prepaid cards as types of storage mechanisms for e-money. Non-Cash Payment Services Decree 52 categorizes non-cash payment services into services with and without client payment
Read More
June 19, 2024
On June 14, 2024, the Personal Data Protection Committee (PDPC) released a draft notification under the Personal Data Protection Act 2019 (PDPA), setting out criteria for how data controllers must delete, destroy, and de-identify personal data. According to the PDPA, a data subject can request that a data controller delete, destroy, or de-identify their personal data in any of the following circumstances: The personal data is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, used, or disclosed. The data subject has withdrawn their consent for the processing of the personal data, and no other lawful basis for processing remains. The data subject has objected to the processing of their personal data on grounds of legitimate interests or official tasks, the data controller has no other compelling grounds to refuse the request, and the data is not needed for legal claims. The data subject objects to the processing of their personal data for direct marketing purposes. The processing of personal data is unlawful. The draft stipulates that data controllers respond to a data subject’s request to delete, destroy, or de-identify personal data immediately, and within 60 days of receiving the request. If the data controller cannot fulfill the request immediately, they must take interim measures to ensure that the personal data is made difficult to collect, use, or disclose. This includes implementing measures such as preventing access to the data and applying appropriate security measures to protect the data from unauthorized use or disclosure. De-identification or Anonymization of Personal Data In certain circumstances, a data controller may opt to de-identify or anonymize personal data, rather than delete or destroy it. If doing so, the data controller must satisfy the following criteria: There must be a structured process to remove or eliminate all direct identifiers linked to the
Read More
May 15, 2024
On May 1, 2024, Thailand’s National Cyber Security Committee (NCSC) published the draft NCSC Notification Re: Cloud Cybersecurity Standards for a public hearing period, which was open until May 14, 2024. These standards have been drafted to drive the country’s cloud-first policy with the aim of minimizing risks from cyber threats to cloud services utilized by government agencies, supervising or regulating organizations, and critical information infrastructure (CII) organizations. The key points of the draft Cloud Cybersecurity Standards are below. Scope The standards apply to government agencies, supervising or regulating organizations, and CII organizations under the Cybersecurity Act B.E. 2562 (2019), as well as cloud service providers (defined below). The standards prescribe cloud system cybersecurity measures for cloud service customers (defined below) and providers only to the extent that the service is provided to the in-scope organizations outlined above. Definitions Cloud service customers (CSCs): In-scope organizations that have a formal contractual agreement to use cloud services provided by a cloud service provider. Cloud service providers (CSPs): Persons who enable cloud services to be used by a cloud service customer, responsible for maintaining infrastructure, platforms, and software that enable provision of the cloud services and for managing these resources to ensure their accessibility, security, and scalability for their cloud service customers. Application In-scope organizations that will use or have been using cloud services must comply with the Cloud Cybersecurity Standards by taking into account their data or technology information systems’ level of impact, as specified in the previously issued Notification of the NCSC Re: Standards for Defining the Security Category for Data and Information Systems B.E. 2566 (2023). The impact level related to personal data is to be rated as being at least at the medium level, and the minimum standards for that level specified in the draft Cloud Cybersecurity Standards
Read More
May 13, 2024
On May 2, 2024, Vietnam’s Ministry of Justice published on its online platform the most recent version of the draft decree on administrative sanctions for violations in the field of cybersecurity (“Draft Sanction Decree”) to gather feedback and contributions from the community and stakeholders. After receiving the Ministry of Justice’s assessment, the Ministry of Public Security (“MPS”), in charge of drafting the Draft Sanction Decree, may make further revisions before submitting it to the government for review and final decision on enactment. The decree is expected to have an effective date of June 1, 2024. The stringent penalties for infringements involving personal data of the previous draft version remain in this Draft Sanction Decree—a sign of the proactive stance of the MPS in enforcing the Personal Data Protection Decree (“PDPD”). Effective Date and Transitional Provisions It is important to note that the Draft Sanction Decree does not impose any new obligations on organizations or individuals, and only sets out the administrative sanctions that could be imposed on violators as soon as June 1, 2024, which is indicated as the effective date in Article 49. This signals the MPS’s eagerness to begin taking enforcement actions against recalcitrant organizations and individuals that have not complied with the various obligations imposed on them under the Law on Network Information Security (enacted in 2015), the Law on Cybersecurity (enacted in 2018) and its guiding decree (Decree 53 – enacted in 2022), and the most recent PDPD (enacted in 2023). Article 50.1 of the Draft Sanction Decree outlines the transitional provisions regarding administrative violations in the cybersecurity field. It clarifies that the decree does not have retroactive effect, by stating that violations occurring before its effective date, but discovered or under review after such effective date will be subject to the regulations on administrative
Read More