To better position themselves for foreign trade, on the heels of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), many countries in the Asia Pacific are tweaking, implementing or developing their own privacy laws.

• Japan – was recently granted an adequacy status by the EU for its privacy protection regime.
• South Korea – is still in discussion stages for such an adequacy decision.
• India – is finalizing a standalone data protection bill.
• Thailand and Indonesia – are targeting their draft personal data protection bills to be passed by this year.

Indonesia has been deliberating a draft personal data protection bill since 2015, but it keeps getting pushed back due to lack of prioritization. It remains to be seen if the push from the Communication and Information Ministry to get the bill passed before the April presidential and legislative elections will bear fruit.

Information from The Jakarta Post.