Referring to the legal loophole regarding the protection of personal data, the head of the digital economy committee of the parliament asked President Ebrahim Raisi to send the data protection bill to the parliament as soon as possible.
According to Iran digital economy annotation, Mojtaba Tavangar, in a letter he wrote to the head of government, pointed out the hacking of government systems and private businesses and the meeting of numerous users’ information in the last one year and said that of course many hacks are not reported.
He wrote: “I hope that these recent unfortunate events will cause domestic platforms to officially apologize to the public, provide their data enhancement program, and minimize the damage caused by past and future hacks.” At the same time, the government and regulatory institutions also pay attention; This damage should not cause illegal and unreasonable restrictions to internal platforms and strengthen regulatory and related laws. Of course, punishment and accountability, even based on GDPR regulations, seem to be common and necessary.”
He also mentioned Irancell’s stake in Snap and wrote: “The recent data leak from one of the domestic platforms should be followed up by its shareholders in one of the mobile phone operators and one of the ministries.”
According to Tavangar, there is a legal gap in this case in the country and the current laws cannot solve the problem.
In his letter, he also mentioned the data protection plan that was prepared in 2019 and was announced in 2021 and said that with the establishment of the digital economy working group in the government, the plan of the parliament was removed from the agenda of the parliament with the preference of the parliament and the request of the government.
Tavangar wrote in his letter that although the working group of the data protection bill was approved in June 2023 in the working group of the digital economy and this working group has the authority of the government according to the principles of 138 and 127 of the constitution, but one of the ministers requested the bill against the law. Govt’s judicial and legal commission said that this delay has caused serious damage to the country and people’s data.
Tehran’s representative in the parliament has pointed out clauses of this bill according to which: “Data is received, stored, stored and processed only if the consent of the data subject is obtained. Also, the rights related to data, such as the right to be forgotten (request to delete data by the user) and the right to be corrected, should be recognized, and in case of abuse or illegal processing, the offender should be dealt with appropriately.
The Chairman of the Parliament’s Digital Economy Committee has specified Article 3 of this bill, which states: “Processing personal data of private and exclusive privacy depends on the consent of the subject and the permission of the possibility of privacy. The declaration of consent and permission of the said persons must comply with the following conditions. be: a) before processing; b) to express the knowledge of the mentioned persons; and c) be citable.
Article 9 also states: “Consent to processing does not mean allowing the disclosure of the identity of the data subject, and the right to anonymity of the person within the scope of the expressed consent must be protected by the processors.”
Article 32 of this bill also mentions the punishments for violating the law: “The perpetrators of the following actions will be sentenced to the prescribed punishment: a) Violation of the right to consent of the data subject, if private and exclusive data is processed, to the 5th degree punishment and if the data of to be publicly processed, to the punishment of degree 6; b) Obstructing all or part of the data subject’s right to request for processing or stopping it or processing personal data by himself or violating his right to anonymity and forgetting, to one or both of the 6th degree punishment.
Tavangar asked the president to turn this bill into a law as soon as possible: “Given that there is a consensus in the country on the necessity of passing this law, and the prepared text is the result of collective participation between researchers and experts, and also in the process of approval in the working group and even later. Their opinions have been obtained and implemented through continuous meetings with the stakeholders and the private sector.
It is necessary that this law be approved by the honorable government as soon as possible and sent to the Islamic Council for approval. In this regard, the parliament will fully cooperate with the government, therefore, it is necessary to issue an appropriate order to go through the legal formalities and expedite the submission of the bill to the parliament, so that people’s data and privacy are not threatened and harmed any more. We know that data and information are capital and cause the growth and prosperity of the digital economy, but it is a necessary condition for people’s trust and respect for personal data and information.
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