Privacy legislation in Asia has been extremely active in the past few years, and the level of activity and enforcement does not show any signs of slowing down. Eleven jurisdictions in Asia now have comprehensive privacy laws: Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Macao, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. New Zealand is the only jurisdiction in the region that has been recognized by the European Commission as providing adequate protection.

Notably absent from this list are countries such as China, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. China is slowly moving toward a privacy regime, taking a piecemeal, sectoral approach. Thailand, according to recent reports, may be on the verge of enacting privacy legislation. Vietnam appears to be moving slowly in that direction, but Indonesia does not appear to be close to adopting privacy legislation any time soon.

Originally published in Privacy & Security Law Report on May 18, 2015.