UAE’s Data Law will strengthen customer data protection

UAE’s Data Law will strengthen customer data protection

According to a recently-released survey, 99% of businesses in the United Arab Emirates use third-party trackers and ad-platforms. However, only 68% of respondents have well-defined and documented policies for customer data privacy and a mere 8% strictly apply them, revealed a recent survey. The UAE is expecting to have an overarching federal law in place for regulating data privacy and protection very soon. However, free zones like the DIFC and AGDM have their own data protection regulations while the Federal Decree-Law No.(5) of 2012 includes strict mandates to combat cybercrime. The UAE’s Data Law will play a big role in the protection of customer data used by private companies, said a top official of Zoho Corp. The survey was conducted by Centurion Consulting on behalf of Zoho Corp, a global technology company. “This rampant use of third-party trackers in the business space has severe ethical and privacy implications because of the enormous amounts of customer data being gathered through them,” said Hyther Nizam, President-MEA, Zoho Corp. “Most businesses use the same set of third-party trackers, which means the large corporates behind these trackers can combine data collected across different websites and build comprehensive individual profiles for hyper-targeted advertising. We call