Nepal is a landlocked country with the population of approximately 30 million people and share a boarder with China and India. Nepal is one of the poor countries and one quarter of the population lives under the poverty line. Nepal is one of the south Asian countries with ‘minimal e-government capacity’ fueled by corruption (CIAA,2008). Nepal was ranked 139th out of 176 countries in public sector corruption by Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index in 2012.
The constitution of Nepal includes right to privacy which was first included in the constitution of 1990 and was retained in 2007 Interim Constitution which is still inforce. The Article 28 states that ‘Except in circumstances as provided by law, the privacy of the person, residence, property, document, statistics, correspondence, and character of anyone is inviolable’.
‘Nepal, having the unstable parliamentary democracy has very limited privacy protection specially in the private sector. According to the law of Nepal, it provides the public with the right to information (RTI) law while ‘Freedom of information’ has various uncommon and potentially significant data private protections. In south Asia, Nepal is the only country which has such law. India too has the data privacy law but it applies only to the private sector. Only five countries which have data privacy laws in the public sector (not generally applicable to the private sector), Nepal is one of them.
Public sector in Nepal has some privacy laws. This includes right to access, right of correction, protections against access by others, restriction on use and disclosure of government by government agencies, restriction to additional uses by third parties when they do obtain access. Even with all the laws involved there are no clear provision in the act concerning data security or data quality. Also one of the important element not mentioned is explicit restriction which means it is not known when public bodies can collect personal information and how much. However, the presence of all other standard elements is sufficient to defend regarding Nepal as a country with a public sector data privacy laws.
Some of the data protection or privacy laws in Nepal are:
- · Protection of personal Information against access:
- · Protection of accessed Personal Information against misuse by third parties
- · Restriction on use and disclosure of personal information by public bodies
- · Compensation and offenses
(Graham,G.2013)
Effectiveness of Data protection (Privacy): Nepal VS EU
It is very difficult to compare the effectiveness of data protection in EU to Nepal. In EU, the data protection can be very effective. It will ensure the data to be easily accessible and guarantee people have full control in their life. Further, data protection will enforce businesses one continent, one continent one law policy which means that the companies will deal with one law in European countries. This will solve the current inconsistency in the patchwork of national laws between different countries. The same rules will be applied to all the companies regardless of wherever they are established. The EU regulation in data protection will also ensure the One-Stop-Shop which means the company have to deal with one single supervisory authority and not 28. This will make it simpler and Cheaper for the companies operating business in EU. Moreover, the new reform in data protection will encourage the innovation under the new rules (European Commission, 2015).
Contrary, Nepal has no clear vision regarding the persona data privacy. It is obvious that the laws are formulated for privacy and data protection, however implementation can be least expected. Nepal is one of the countries in South Asia with ‘minimal e-Government capacity’. The government system flawed by corruption, political instability, inefficient bureaucratic practices (Baral &Bhurtyal, 2010).
Security and privacy protection issues are identified as supply side barriers for effective implementation of e-Government system (Raab, 2004). It is therefore needed to address these issues. In terms of Nepal, even with the presence of laws concerning privacy, the system has not been effective. In one of the research about Patient’s attitude towards privacy in a Nepalese Public Hospital: a cross- sectional survey, the result stated that majority of the patients (58%9) stated that they feel uncomfortable sharing the privacy, 53% stated that they did not want other patients to know about their medical history. It is also stated in this research that there is very little research evidence about the expectation of privacy in developing countries like Nepal. However, patients are mostly not in favor to share information’s specially related to their healthcare. These issues are more concerned with the trust issues towards the general practice in the society (Chaudhary, R,2013).
Some of the points below can add some recommendation for Nepal to reform its system:
· It is very important to maintain the trust when it comes to online environment. It will create a good relationship between the service provider and the recipients (Palvia, 2009).
· Government needs to assure the public that they will not be victimized by illegal activities during the process of information transaction between the e-Government constituents. It is necessary for the government to ensure the security in data and privacy protection. Also government needs to assure people that their personal data will not be misused and no secondary use is made to it (Lau,2003)
· Client friendly procedures and strongly motivated administration along with the comprehensive legal and regulatory framework is needed to enforce law and to have effective application of e-Government system (Caine,2004).
References:
Data Protection reform- Questions and Answers Press Release. 2015. Referred on 08.11.2016. Available on http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-15-6385_en.htm
Ghimire,T. Data Protection Law and Policy Factor Impact on Public Trust in e-Government System in Developing Countries. Referred on 08.11.2016. Available on http://itconference.org.np/
Greenleaf, Graham, Nepal's Unknown Data Privacy Law: No Shangri-La, but a First for South Asia (July 1, 2013). International Data Privacy Law, Vol 3, Issue 4, 2013; UNSW Law Research Paper No. 2013-61. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2326799
Patients’ attitudes towards privacy in a Nepalese public hospital: a cross-sectional survey. Chaudhary,R. 2013. Acessed on 08.11.2016. Available on https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3564719/
Protection of personal data. 2016. Website of European Commission. Referred on 08.11.2016. Available on http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/
The IMIA Code of Ethics for Health Information Professionals: International Medical Informatics Association. Referred on 08.11.2016. Available on http://www.imia-medinfo.org/new2/pubdocs/Ethics_Eng.pdf
- Report by Umesh Timilsina
Student of University of Eastern Finland
Kuopio, Finland
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