The Mauritius Data Protection Act 2017 and the European Union General Data Protection Regulation: Legal challenges and opportunities’ will be the theme of a conference organised by Juristconsult Chambers, in collaboration with DLA Piper, next Friday.

The Head of Data Protection at Juristconsult Chambers, Shalinee Dreepaul Halkhoree, explains why compliance to data protection laws is challenging and how consent plays an important role, but people are still confused of circumstances where their consents are required

“Data protection” is the new buzzword. Why is that?

There are two reasons for that. The first one is that since 15 January 2018, we have a new legislation on data protection, which is the Data Protection Act 2017 (the “DPA”). The second one is that the EU General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) which sets the international standards as data protection is concerned came into effect on 25 May 2018. Thus, both nationally and internationally, changes have been brought to data protection laws to give enhanced rights to data subjects and to impose new obligations on controllers. The reason for these changes is to curtail data breaches to which data subjects are more prone in this technology-driven world we live in.

What is the rationale of data protection?

The right to the protection of one’s personal data forms part of one’s right to privacy. Our Constitution, in its Chapter 2, guarantees the Fundamental Rights and Freedoms of the Individual, and one of those rights is the right to the protection for the privacy of home and property of a person. Besides, article 22 of the Code Civil Mauricien which provides that: "Chacun a droit au respect de sa vie privée".

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