On February 7, the Vietnamese government issued Resolution No 13/NQ-CP (“Resolution 13”) to formally approve all the draft Personal Data Protection Decree (PDPD) formulation dossier, including the draft decree’s content.
Resolution 13 stipulates different cases where data subjects’ consent is exempted for processing personal data, which are:
- Data may be collected in order to protect people’s lives and health in emergency situations.
- The disclosure of personal data is in accordance with the law;
- Data may be processed by authorities during emergency situations regarding national defense, security and social order. Such situations include major natural disasters, disease outbreaks, times of terrorist threats, as well as several other circumstances.
- Data processing is to fulfill contractual obligations of the data subject with relevant agencies, organizations, and individuals as prescribed by law;
- Data may be collected if it is to serve the activities of state entities, as regulated by existing laws.
At the 20th working session of the National Assembly Standing Committee (NASC) on February 13-15, the NASC commented on and approved the promulgation of the PDPD. After obtaining the NASC's green light, the Government can finally issue the long-awaited Decree as early as March 2023.
During the working session, NASC also provided remarks on the draft Law on Electronic Transactions (amended) and the draft Consumer Law for the drafting agencies to revise before submitting them to the National Assembly for final approval at the plenary meeting in May this year.
