On 29 January 2021, the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) announced that certain sections of the Personal Data Protection (Amendment) Act 2020 (the PDPA Amendments) will take effect from 1 February 2021 – please see PDPC’s announcement; the gazetted Commencement Notification.  This legal update provides a high-level summary of the PDPA Amendments that have taken effect.

The changes introduced by the PDPA Amendments to the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (the PDPA) are the most significant since the PDPA first came into force on 1 July 2014.  Please see our earlier blog post, Singapore tables changes to the Personal Data Protection Act in Parliament, discussing the key changes introduced by the PDPA Amendments.
The PDPA Amendments will take effect in phases, with the following three key changes taking effect from 1 February 2021:

• Mandatory data breach notification: Organisations must notify the PDPC of any data breach that: (i) results in, or is likely to result in, significant harm to the affected individuals; or (ii) is of a significant scale (i.e., involves personal data of 500 or more individuals). Affected individuals must be notified if the data breach is likely to result in significant harm to them.
  • Prescribed personal data or classes of personal data deemed to result in significant harm: The Personal Data Protection (Notification of Data Breaches) Regulations 2021 (Regulations on Notification of Data Breaches) provide a prescribed list of personal data or classes of personal data that shall be deemed to result in significant harm to affected individuals if compromised in a data breach (e.g., authentication data relating to an individual’s account with an organisation, credit card information, bank account number, creditworthiness of an individual, salary information etc.).
  • Timeframes for notification: Notifications to the PDPC must be made as soon as is practicable, but in any case no later than 3 calendar days after the day the organisation makes the assessment that a data breach is a notifiable data breach. Notifications to individuals must be made as soon as practicable, at the same time or after notifying the PDPC.
  • Information required: See Regulations on Notification of Data Breaches for a prescribed list of minimum information that the notification must contain.
• Introduction of offences concerning mishandling of personal data by individuals: Individuals will be held accountable for egregious mishandling of personal data through the introduction of new criminal offences: (i) knowing or reckless unauthorised disclosure of personal data; (ii) knowing or reckless unauthorised use of personal data for a wrongful gain or a wrongful loss to any person; and (iii) knowing or reckless unauthorised re-identification of anonymised data. The prescribed penalty for these offences, which may be imposed on individuals, is a fine not exceeding S$5,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or both.
• Expansion of consent framework: New provisions to introduce deemed consent by contractual necessity and deemed consent by notification to allow organisations to collect, use and disclose personal data. Additionally, legitimate interest and business improvement exceptions have been introduced, with changes to the business asset transaction exception to broaden the scope and changes to the research exception to improve data innovation efforts. The expansions to the consent framework are accompanied by accountability requirements.

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Wellnex and My-insurer will be providing Islandwide Home assistance thanks to its partnership with Big Mama Home Service. 
Big Mama Home Services provide premium home services to individuals, households and companies within Singapore. Their team of home service professionals includes laundry/dry cleaning, curtain cleaning, bag and shoe cleaning, aircon services, house cleaning.
They have been providing laundry cleaning and washing Singapore’s dirty stories for ten years. Today, to cater to rising and different customer demands looking for high quality services, they have expanded to home services such as housecleaning, upholstery cleaning,  air con cleaning, bag repairs, among others, to become a one stop home service solution. Today they are one of the largest offline and online home service provider in Singapore.
With their Call center, they will be able to respond to our members looking for air conditioning support  is at fixed priced and net of GST so that the member wont need to deal with any surprises.
The member just need to log on onto the app and go to assistance and press to call. Someone will respond automatically for assistance. 

Another great milestone for Wellnex and My insurer as we extend the benefits and services at disposal for our members

Wellnex and My-insurer will be providing 24/7 Islandwide roadside assistance thanks to its partnership with Across Asia Assist (AAA).
AAA is a digital assistance company operating in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indonesia. AAA is a Core Partner of IAG, the largest alliance of independent assistance companies and providers in the world.
With their Call center, they will be able to respond to our members looking for road assistance such as Towing, Changing Tyres or Jumpstarting! All is at fixed priced and net of GST so that the member wont need to deal with any surprises.
The member just need to log on onto the app and go to assistance and press to call. Someone will respond automatically for assistance. 

Another great milestone for Wellnex and My insurer as we extend the benefits and services at disposal for our members