Review of Personal Data Protection Act 2012 to Address Use of Inferred or Derived Data Generated by AI

39 Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong asked the Minister for Digital Development and Information (a) whether the Ministry intends to review the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 to address the use of inferred or derived data, including behavioural profiles generated by Artificial Intelligence systems; and (b) if so, what principles will guide such a review.

Mrs Josephine Teo: Under the Personal Data Protection Act, data about an identifiable individual is considered personal data and an organisation has obligations to safeguard such data in its possession or control. This also covers data about the individual that an organisation derives in the course of business from such personal data.

The Personal Data Protection Commission has published Advisory Guidelines on the Use of Personal Data in Artificial Intelligence (AI) Recommendation and Decision Systems. It sets out principles to guide organisations and consumers on the responsible collection and use of personal data in AI systems, such as using data only for legitimate business purposes and limiting data collection to what is needed.