Information Commissioner Intensifies Legal Protection Act

Jamaica’s Information Commissioner, Celia Barclay is assuring citizens that her office, coupled with the legal protection act, will be monitoring and assessing data to ensure data controllers are in compliance with the legislation. She says both data controllers and data subjects will be protected under the act. Celia Barclay is bent on intensifying data protection and privacy for users, by registering and monitoring data controllers who are operating in Jamaica. 

She says data cannot be monitored without information; therefore the legal protection act will play a critical role. Barclay says another duty of the commission is to carry out assessments for data controllers at their request in keeping with the data protection act.

She went further, noting that any person who believes a data controller is not compliant with legislation, may also make a request for an assessment. Meanwhile, the information commissioner says despite the fact that it is the role of the information office to ensure data users rights are upheld, under the legislation it is the primary responsibility of a data controller to respect consumers rights. Barclay says at the end of November 2023, all data controllers are expected to be in compliance with the act and at that point the commission’s full regulatory role is expected to be in full effect.

Reporter: Justin Graham