Timor-Leste’s Privacy Law

By Raul Bernardino

Introduction

Timor-Leste is a new country which born in May 20^th, 2002. We did not have yet a privacy law yet, however, we do have a constitution which is clearly declares a privacy and protection of any Timor-Leste’s citizenship. We can found the in Timor-Leste constitution starting from section 36 up to section 48.

In section 36 stated: “Right to Honor and Privacy” every Timorese as an individual has the right to honor, a good name and reputation, protection of his or her public image and privacy of his or her personal and family life.

The section 37 stated: Any person’s home and the privacy of his or her correspondence and other means of private communication are inviolable, expect in the cases provided for by law as result of criminal proceedings. A person’s home shall not be entered against his or her will, expect under the written order of a competent judicial authority and in the cases and manner prescribed by law.

The Section 38 stated: “Protection of personal data” every citizen has the right to access personal data stored in a computer system or entered into mechanical or manual records regarding him or her, and he or she shall have the right to demand the purpose of such data. The law shall determine the concept of personal data, as well as the conditions applicable to the processing thereof. The processing of personal data on private life, political and philosophical convictions, religious faith, party or trade union membership and ethnical origin, without the consent of the interested person, is prohibited. The section 38 is more specific talking about the data privacy on the computing or information and technology.

Other following sections up section 48 are more on the freedom of having a right to express in public and protection.

In comparing to the international privacy law, Timor-Leste has to have a specific law for information and technology in which will be talking about privacy over computing. Since this law is still not developing yet, we are very much using a constitution as a base.

Technology and privacy of the information now became public available. Nowadays, modern life leaves traces in the system. Most people are accessing too much information which is sometimes having no relevance to his or her needs.

The privacy right will be allowing individual to decide whether to share his or her personal information with others or not. (Chirs Clark) P. 17

 Reference list:

·     Adams, A.A. & McCrindle, R.J. (2008) Pandora’s box: Social and professional issues of the information age. West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Ch 7, P.235-236

·        Timor-Leste Constitution [on-line]. Available from: http://www.gov.east-timor.org/constitution/constitution-Timor-Leste.pdf (Accessed date: January 13, 2011)

·        Andrew T Kenyon and Megan Richardson: New dimension in Privacy Law International and comparative Perspective [on-line]. Available from: http://books.google.com.sg/books?id=g8tHAmmJ0cUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=privacy+laws&hl=en&ei=YoguTeGdGI-ycciT2ZsI&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=privacy%20laws&f=false (Accessed date: January 13, 2011)

·        Chris Clark and Janice McGhee: Private and Confidential? Handleing personal information in the social and health services (2008) [on-line]. Available from: http://books.google.com.sg/books?id=fW6pSVhfGCEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=subject:%22Data+protection+-+Law+and+legislation+-+Great+Britain%22&hl=en&ei=A7guTabWJc_IcYyE0OMH&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false (Accessed date: January 13, 2011)