07 Feb 2020
The International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) has published a valuable report where various IAPP members all over the word offer their predictions for what 2020 has in store on privacy and data protection legislation/regulations in their respective countries. The IAPP notices that almost all countries featured in the report are expecting increased regulation and enforcement this year and, as a result, are increasing their workforce accordingly.
Privacy Minders’ partner, Ms. Maria Raphael, made the following predictions regarding Cyprus:
‘’Following Cyprus’ application for accession to the Schengen area in July 2019, EU officials have assessed Cyprus’ infrastructure and began their evaluation beginning with assessing the Office of the Cyprus Commissioner for Personal Data Protection to determine if it can exercise adequate supervision over systems and procedures that the public authorities have or must have to fully and correctly implement the Schengen Agreement. Assuming Cyprus receives a positive assessment in the field of personal data, further evaluations will be carried out in 2020 in other areas.
The main challenge in 2020 will be to coordinate and implement the best practices and recommendations drawn up at the European level in the Schengen field. Cyprus will need to balance its legislation with the legal instruments of the Schengen Information System, the largest information-sharing system for security and border management in Europe.
Highly anticipated legislation will implement the regulations on the Customs Information System composed of a central database accessible through terminals in EU member states. Cyprus must also begin efforts to achieve synchronization with the new EU Directive on “the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law,” designed to enhance the protection of whistleblowers within the EU.
It is also expected that the amendments for the Protection of the Confidentiality of Private Communications (Surveillance of Telecommunications and Access to Recorded Content of Private Communication) will be enacted enabling the general attorney to request the court an order allowing the surveillance of private communication under terms and conditions, provided the surveillance is required for the interest of Cyprus’ security or for the prevention, detection or prosecution of specific criminal offenses.
Lastly, the Right of Access to the Information of the Public Sector Law of 2017, regulating the right of access of the public to information possessed by public authorities, was amended and will come into effect in December.’’
You can access the White Paper here (
https://iapp.org/resources/article/global-legislative-predictions-2020/)