Author: Jennifer Bryant, IAPP Associate Editor

Jamaica’s Data Protection Act, passed in 2020, established the Office of the Information Commissioner to enforce data privacy rights outlined in the legislation. Appointed Dec. 1, 2021 to give strategic direction to the OIC, Information Commissioner Celia Barclay is in the process of building the office from the ground up.

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS are being urged to appoint data protection officers to monitor compliance with the Data Protection Act, 2020 and report non-conformity not remedied within reasonable time.

The call comes from Information Commissioner Celia Barclay, and is in light of the anticipated implementation of the legislation later this year.

She was speaking at a recent hybrid Cybersecurity and Data Protection Forum for educators and administrators, hosted by e-learning Jamaica Company Limited in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Youth.

Under the Data Protection Act (‘DPA’ or the Act), individuals (called ‘data subjects’) whose personal data are being processed by third parties (‘data controllers’) have the right to access and be informed about the processing of that information and to make a complaint to the data controller or the Information Commissioner if their personal data is not being processed in keeping with standards prescribed by the DPA.

Data controllers must therefore be able to effectively manage data subject access requests (DSARs) as well as their complaints. 

Register with the Information Commissioner

A data controller that processes personal data must be registered with the Information Commissioner. 
A data controller that wishes to process personal data must submit to the Information Commissioner the following information: