Singapore offers more assistance to upgrade data protection

Organizations in Singapore, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can look forward to more assistance to better protect private data, according to a press release by the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) on Friday.

The PDPC has rolled out a suite of resources to help organizations implement data protection policies and practices, it said. This includes a new set of advisory guidelines, guides to manage electronic personal data and data breaches, a new legal advice scheme with Law Society of Singapore and a new Assessment Module in the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPA) E- learning Program.

For example, under the new legal advice scheme, the SMEs are able to seek basic legal advice during a one-hour consultation with a lawyer assigned by the Law Society at the expense of 500 Singapore dollars.

Singapore also has a "Do Not Call" (DNC) registry, where those who don't want to be contacted by telemarketing purposes can register their mobile with the government. And all companies who plan to send out advertisement messages to reach possible customers are requested to check with the registry to ensure no violation will be incurred. But the company needs to pay for such services.

Under the new initiatives, authorities in Singapore will help companies keep down compliance costs by giving indirect subsidies for firms to check against the DNC registry. Companies were given 1,000 credits every year for using such services, with one credit to check against one number.