Data Protection: Chile gives the thumbs up

This week the Chilean ‘Cámara de Diputados’ (House of Representatives) approved the amendments made by the Senate in relation to the bill that reinforces the principle of specified and lawful purposes in processing of personal data. The law is known as ‘Dicom’.

The ‘ley Dicom’ (Law 19812) was published on June 2002 amending the law known as ‘Personal Data Protection’ (Law 19628). One of the changes promoted at the time were based in the handling of financial and commercial data. The new amendment also focuses on the treatment given to financial data and thus, the bill emphasises the fact that economic personal data hold shall be used only for the specific purposes for which it was collected, namely for commercial risk assessments and credit purposes.

It is therefore established that under no circumstances this information (financial data) may be required and/or used for staff selection, admission to schools, higher education, emergency medical care or nomination for a State office.

The note publishes by the Camara de Diputados here, continues saying that “those responsible for data records and distributor of records shall, in the development of its business, apply the principles of legitimacy, access, opposition, data quality, purpose, proportionality, transparency, non- discrimination, restrictions on use and safety in the processing of personal data." They must have a registration system indentifying the name of the person who is requesting the data, registering date and time, and who is the person responsible for the delivery of such data. They must also designate a person in charge, so that data owners can go to him to enforce their rights.

Violations of this law shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of Law 19628 on the Protection of Right to Privacy.

Now the bill has completed its passage through Congress and has been sent to the Executive for promulgation.

The whole legislative process can be seen here.