Mongolia: New data privacy kid on the block

The UN Trade and Development Agency (UNCTAD) reported back in 2020, at the start of the COVID crisis that put online interaction under the microscope, that only 66% of the world’s countries had frameworks in place to safeguard people’s data and privacy. 

In the five years since their report, some progress has been made. The percentage of countries with privacy-focused legislation now stands at 79%. But there is still some distance to go. With countries like Mongolia taking action, the Asia-Pacific region is starting to gain ground. But many of these nations are considered emerging economies with much less awareness of data privacy as a concept. The Carnegie Foundation has advised that countries in the so-called Global South, including much of the APAC region, will need to take a distinct approach to data privacy and protection that diverges to some degree from that of the Global North. 

As Mongolia takes a leap into the privacy landscape, the UN is careful to caution that implementation demands societal engagement, education and understanding. And this groundwork is even more lacking in countries where the political will for data privacy is absent or indifferent, such as the Pacific Islands. UNCTAD recently released a report about data protection and cybercrime in small Pacific island states, which shows a major gap between many of the emerging data privacy actions in less digitally advanced parts of Asia and the even less digitally advanced parts of neighboring Pacific Islands. According to the report, not a single Pacific small island developing state currently has a full data protection law in force. And without legal oversight, the burgeoning world of e-commerce and online business springing up via social media channels in the Pacific islands poses new risks that consumers aren’t even informed about. 

And while Pacific island digital maturity and Mongolian data protection transformation will not be atop any list of priorities for most businesses in the Global North, these changes are reminders of the close connectedness of countries in the digital community and the evolving nature of globally harmonized privacy frameworks and the need for broadly international standards for data governance, digital rights and consent.