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S'pore data protection laws took 5 years but baby's being delivered

My editors often remind me that one prediction I made--the one about when general privacy laws would be passed in Singapore--has still not taken place. It has been that long that I can't even remember when the original prediction was made.
Written by ZDNet Staff, Contributor

My editors often remind me that one prediction I made--the one about when general privacy laws would be passed in Singapore--has still not taken place. It has been that long that I can't even remember when the original prediction was made.

This thorn in my flesh was removed on Monday when the government announced that Singapore's data protection laws would be ready by early-2012.

Little else was revealed other than that IDA (the country's ICT regulator) would lead the effort and that a Data Protection Council would be set up. We all wait with bated breadth for more specifics on how this will look.

What will happen? Companies building or anyone that have built databases will now need to reevaluate their processes. Even the collection of employee data could possibly be under scrutiny now.

Did anyone get these offers--being frantically pushed out yesterday--to buy e-mail databases for Singapore companies (5,000 for S$500, 50,000 for S$3,500)? That business will be a vanishing one and those databases worthless once the new laws kick in.

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