In summer 2020, the Republic of Kazakhstan Law "On Personal Data and Its Protection" (the "Personal Data Law") was amended. One of the amendments requires legal entities to appoint a person responsible for the arrangement of personal data processing in a company. This requirement applies to all companies, since each company processes its employees’ and candidates’ data.

Who may become a person responsible for the arrangement of personal data processing? The Personal Data Law states that an employee of a company may take this function. The Personal Data Law does not prohibit engaging third-party specialists under a service contract to arrange the personal data processing and monitoring the company's activities for compliance with the legislation of Kazakhstan. It is fair to assume that the function in question may be outsourced.

In order to understand the position of the data protection authority towards outsourcing of the data protection function, we applied to the Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan with the inquiry of whether the function of a person responsible for the processing of personal data may be transferred to a third-party specialist under a service contract.

The response of the Ministry was that the Personal Data Law does not prohibit the appointment of a data protection officer from among non-employees of an entity. The Ministry also invoked the international experience of engaging third party professionals for the role of protection of personal data within an entity.   

This information may be of interest to entrepreneurs who do not want to increase their personnel or labor costs per employee, or increase the professional burden on their lawyers or compliance managers deflecting them from other matters, but do want to comply with the requirements of personal data law, that is to appoint a person in the company responsible for the arrangement of personal data processing.

We are happy to offer our data protection outsource services. For more details, please contact us via email [email protected], mobile 8 701 768 64 27 or visit our web-site at www.tkl.kz.