Personal data are economic assets that are bound to people’s personal sphere, which is the reason why they are protected under national and international legislations. In Colombia, companies that collect and use personal data need to do so under certain guarantees enshrined in Law 1581 of 2012. Among these guarantees are the duty of data protection to prevent leakage or use by an un-authorized third party.

The Superintendence of Industries and Corporations conducted its second annual study on the security measures of companies that registered their databases in the National Registry of Databases. It found that of 33.596 companies in the registry, 24.424 do not have the necessary security standards to comply with the legal responsibility of protecting personal data.

This finding constitutes a huge risk for the companies that are not complying with the legal obligation of ensuring the security of gathered personal data. This non-compliance could not only mean legal sanctions but also reputational detriments for the companies, even if there has not been any leakage or threat to the data.

If you wish to know how to protect your company from these risks and build an effective plan to guarantee the safe handling of personal data, BéndiksenLaw is here to help you.

Contact us for more information.