data protection and cybersecurity

🇯🇲 Jamaica appoints privacy regulator – Information Commissioner

Posted by bartlettmorgan on
Jamaican flag

Celia Barclay is the Information Commissioner for Jamaica.

What happened?

Per a report in the local press, the Commissioner’s appointment takes effect from December 1, 2021.

The Commissioner was appointed pursuant to Jamaica’s Data Protection Act, 2020 (the “JDPA”) and will be in charge of the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner. Consonant with her equivalent office-holders in other Caribbean jurisdictions, her duties will extend to:

  • Sensitizing the public and other stakeholder groupings on data privacy matters;
  • Ensuring compliance with the act by data controllers (Jamaica’s privacy law does not extend to dat processors); and
  • Advising the Government (via the relevant minister) on data privacy matters

The Jamaican data privacy regime also empowers the Commissioner to generate compliance guidelines.

Next steps

Likely next steps? The relevant Minister must now bring the JDPA into force. This will trigger a two-year grace period during which data controllers that fall within the ambit of the JDPA can bring their houses into order.

The Commissioner may now see about putting together guidelines and rules. She will likely complete staffing her office.

Congratulations to the Commissioner.