On March 6, Singapore announced that it has become the sixth country to participate in the Cross-Border Privacy Rules System (CBPR) as of February 20, 2018, joining the United States, Mexico, Canada, Japan and the Republic of Korea, and the second country to participate in the Privacy Recognition for Processors System (PRP) alongside the United States.  The APEC CBPR system is a voluntary, enforceable mechanism that certifies a company’s compliance with the principles in the APEC CBPR and facilitates privacy-respecting transfers of data among APEC member economies.

Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information highlights in its Factsheet that “once the Personal Data Protection Commission’s (PDPC) certification scheme is in place, certified organizations will be able to exchange personal data with certified organizations in participating APEC economies much more seamlessly, while consumers can be assured that the cross-border transfer of their personal data will be subject to high standards of data protection.”

PDPC is expected to launch a certification scheme which would incorporate CBPR and PRP standards by the end of the year.

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