Personal Data Protection Law, biometric and sensitive data prior permit

Royal Decree No. 6/2022, Arts. 1, 5

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What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.

In force since 13 February 2023.

A biometric privacy rule binding public and private bodies.

As of 29 August 2026.

What it requires

An app must obtain a Ministry permit before processing biometric data, including a faceprint or voiceprint, about an individual in Oman; the Data Subject's consent alone is not a sufficient basis, and the permit's own conditions sit in Executive Regulations not yet confirmed at primary source.

What it reaches

Excludes recording-derived identifiersNo

What this law does

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

Art. 1 defines biometric data as "personal data resulting from specific technical processing relating to the physical, psychological, or behavioural characteristics such as the facial image or the genetic fingerprint data," naming a facial image as a worked example.

Art. 5 prohibits processing genetic data, biometric data, health data, racial origin, sex life, political or religious opinions, philosophical beliefs, criminal convictions, or security-measures data, except after obtaining a Ministry permit under controls and procedures the Executive Regulations set out (not read). This is a prior-permit model, structurally the same heightened gate found in Bahrain: a service cannot rely on the Data Subject's consent alone to process biometric data in Oman.

No modality-specific voice provision exists beyond the general definition, which would still reach a voiceprint as a behavioural characteristic enabling identification. No retention-period ceiling or destruction duty specific to biometric data was found in the Royal Decree itself.

When LexLint raises it

processes_biometrics
processes_voice
crawls_web
trains_models

Read the law

official consolidated Royal Decree text, decree.om

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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