Update on the total revision of the Data Protection Act
The National Council's State Policy Committee (SPK-NR) has concluded its deliberations on the bill for the total revision of the Data Protection Act(17.059). However, the bill was only narrowly adopted, by the casting vote of the president, after nine votes to nine with seven abstentions. It shows that there is still no agreement among the various interest groups and that the revision of the law will therefore take longer than originally planned. In addition, the Commission decided that the new law should only come into force after a transitional period of two years. This would mean that we will probably not have a new data protection law until around 2022/2023.
SPK-NR also proposes some amendments:
Direct election of the Data Protection Commissioner (supervisory authority) by the Federal Assembly.
Right to data portability.
Data on social assistance measures should be removed from the list of personal data requiring special protection.
Foreign companies should have to comply with Swiss data protection law if they offer services in Switzerland and also appoint a representative in Switzerland.
Transition period of two years.
This article was written by RA Yves Gogniat.
If you have any questions on the subject, please do not hesitate to contact Balthasar Wicki.