BhutanInformation, Communications and Media Act of Bhutan 2018, sensitive personal data and biometric information
Information, Communications and Media Act of Bhutan 2018, definitions clause, item 89(f)
In force since .
A sensitive categories rule binding public and private bodies.
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- An app that derives a voiceprint, faceprint, or other biometric identifier from a person in Bhutan must treat it as Sensitive Personal Data or Information and obtain the subject's express written permission before collecting it, unless the information is itself freely available or accessible in the public domain.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
In the frameworks
- NIST Privacy Framework
- CT.PO-P1Policies, processes, and procedures for authorizing data processing (e.g., organizational decisions, individual consent), revoking authorizations, and maintaining authorizations are established and in place.
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
Who enforces it
Settledness
- As of
- Open questions
- Does "biometric information" in item (89)(f) cover a voiceprint or faceprint derived from a recording or photograph?
- Does the proviso that information "freely available or accessible in public domain" is not sensitive personal information take a voiceprint or faceprint derived from a publicly available recording or photograph out of item (89)(f)?
What it makes you log
Logging duty
The definitions clause lists biometric information among the Sensitive Personal Data or Information categories, with a proviso for information freely available in the public domain. A definition imposes no duty, so the item states no log, register or record to keep. The row cites no operative section and no territorial scope clause.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Definitions item (89) lists biometric information as a Sensitive Personal Data or Information category, alongside password, financial information, physical/physiological/mental health condition, sexual orientation, medical records, and a residual "other information legally deemed to be private" category.
The item's own proviso carves information that is freely available or accessible in the public domain, or available under another existing national law, out of the sensitive-personal-information classification, though this does not obviously rescue a voiceprint or faceprint derived from public material, since the derived identifier is a distinct data element from its source recording.
No standalone definition of "biometric information" exists; the term is not otherwise defined, and neither "voice" nor "voiceprint" nor "facial image" appears anywhere in the Act as its own named term. Creating and storing an identity-linked voiceprint or faceprint would be handling Sensitive Personal Data, triggering Chapter 21's consent, non-disclosure, and destruction duties, and, where done by an ICT/media provider, Chapter 17's fuller duties.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app processes biometric data or processes personal data.
Back to the example · Lint your app
Page updated .