On October 24, 2018, at third debate was approved by the National Assembly of Panama http://www.asamblea.gob.pa/ Project Law 665 by means of which the principles, rights, obligations and procedures will regulate in Panama the protection of personal data (Law of Protection of Personal Data). The text approved by the National Assembly was forwarded to the President of the Republic of Panama for its promulgation. This new legislation will take effect 2 years after its promulgation. To date, it has not yet been published in the official gazette www.gacetaoficial.gob.pa
In accordance with the provisions of this new Law, the Executive Branch in coordination with the National Authority of Transparency and Access to Information http://www.antai.gob.pa/ shall regulate the Law.
The Personal Data Law is governed by the principles of loyalty, purpose, proportionality, truthfulness, accuracy, data security, transparency, confidentiality, legality and portability. “Personal data is defined as any information concerning natural persons, which identifies them or makes them identifiable” and, “sensitive data such as that which refers to the intimate sphere of its owner, or whose misuse may give rise to discrimination or entails a serious risk for this.
The control and supervision of the processing of personal data contained in databases will be by the National Authority of Transparency and Access to Information, with the support of the National Authority for Government Innovation http://www.innovacion.gob.pa/ when it comes to aspects related to Information and Communication Technologies (FTAs)
The amounts of the sanctions applicable to the respective faults, according to their severity, are established from US $ 1,000 to US $ 10,000. The Courts of Justice must know of the demands to compensate the patrimonial damage and the moral damage that is caused by the improper use of the personal data.