The Cayman Islands Government has announced that the date on which the Data Protection Law 2017 ("DPL") will be brought into force is now 30 September 2019. The DPL was previously anticipated to be brought into force at the end of January 2019.

In order to assist the many public and private entities which will be affected by DPL, the supervisory body for data protection in the Islands, the Office of the Ombudsman, has released a draft document titled "Data Protection Law 2017 Guide for Data Controllers" which will serve as a practical manual for the way that systems, procedures and documents can be implemented and/or updated to ensure compliance. The Guide is modelled on an equivalent version issued by the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK in relation to GDPR and this approach by the Cayman Ombudsman taken together with the requirements of the DPL itself reflects the Islands' intention to align its data protection regime with international standards, most notably within the European Union.

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