White Paper on the Data Protection Regimes in the GCC

White Paper on the Data Protection Regimes in the GCC

With the increasing reliance on digital technologies and the proliferation of personal data, safeguarding individual privacy and ensuring robust data protection mechanisms have become crucial in the GCC, with repercussions that go well beyond the sectoral concerns of the regional communications industry. This evolution comes at a time when the need to share personal data to grow and develop regional businesses and economies has never been greater.

This paper examines the existing data protection laws, regulations, and initiatives adopted by GCC countries (together, the "Data Protection Laws") with the focus on assessing the opportunity to develop a regional data protection framework, similar to the EU-wide General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), that would allow for consistency in Data Protection Laws and their interpretation, the role of data protection and other regulatory authorities, and a harmonized implementation and enforcement across the GCC.