40 percent of polled Kazakhstan citizens against data personalization

A significant part of Kazakhstan citizens are expressly against the draft law On Personal Data initiated by the Interior Ministry of Kazakhstan, Tengrinews.kz reports citing a poll of the Institute of Political Solutions (IPS). 39.2 percent of the citizens do not support this idea, while 45 percent of Kazakhstan people are for this draft law. Every sixth respondent (15.8 percent of polled citizens) found it difficult to express their attitude to this issue. The Majilis (Lower Chamber of the Parliament) started reviewing the draft law On Personal Data in May. The draft law provides for gathering information on every Kazakhstan citizen, including all the details: family, ownership of movable and immovable property, mobile phone number, as well as biometrics (blood type, iris image, finger prints). An expert discussion of the draft law was held in the IPS Club. The experts are cautious about the Interior Ministry’s initiative. According to them, failure to protect personal data is one of the weaknesses of the draft law. The experts also note that liability issues are quite vague, including the terms of registration of the accountable persons in the system. The responsibility for disclosing the information out of sordid and criminal motives is quite low: the experts suggest to toughen the responsibility. Besides, the participants of the discussion expressed concern over further development of Internet-commerce in Kazakhstan, as the draft law imposes practically impossible requirements on owners of servers. The wording of the draft law raises many questions as well, the IPS states. Human rights expert and member of Kazakhstan Internet Association Igor Loskutov told Tengrinews.kz that the ban on disclosing people’s personal information may threaten operations of social networks.