Information, 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)

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In force since 8 January 2018.

A sensitive categories rule binding public and private bodies.

As of 29 August 2026.

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.

What this law does

Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.

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

processes_biometrics
processes_voice
crawls_web
trains_models

Read the law

official Act text
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Every line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.

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