Why does personal data protection make financial sense? (We trust that you intend to comply with the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (PDPA). Otherwise our writeup and professional services will make no sense to you.)
Pursuant to section 48J of the PDPA, a financial penalty may be imposed on your organisation for contravening the relevant provisions of the PDPA, up to:
- S$1 million; or
- 10% of its annual turnover in Singapore if annual turnover exceeds S$10 million and the breach pertains to the protection obligation under section 24.
In just the 2nd half of 2022 alone, several high profile organisations have already been found to be in breach of the PDPA. The list includes: Audio House; MyRepublic; Farrer Park Hospital; Shopify Commerce Singapore and Supernova; RedMart; and Thomson Medical.
Reported financial penalties for failing to establish reasonable security arrangements to protect personal data are as follow:
- RedMart: S$72,000
- Farrer Park Hospital: S$58,000
- Audio House: S$10,000
- MyRepublic: S$60,000
Financial penalties aside, did you know that investing in data protection (and privacy) increases your revenue as well? Even in our difficult economic climate today, privacy investment yielded on average 1.8 times return on investment, according to Cisco’s 2023 data privacy benchmark study. One big reason, as indicated by 94% of the survey respondents, was that customers would buy from them only if their personal data was properly protected.
By implementing a robust data protection management programme, your organisation will benefit from improved operational efficiency, risk management and brand reputation. You will be able to identify and eliminate excess information, which leads to increased capacity to handle customer requests more effectively. Then you can zoom in on leads and customers who are hot and stop wasting time on those who are cold.
Kickstart your personal data protection process for your business today by reaching out to us at zhengfeng@ferventchambers.com to schedule a complimentary 30-min consultation.
Our next personal data protection feature will be on how the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to your business. Please follow us on our social media channels on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and subscribe to our Telegram channel to stay up to date with the latest legal developments and learn how they impact you.