Congress analyzes reform to expand the list of sensitive personal data

Until today, the Law that regulates the Protection of Personal Data Held by Individuals (Federal Law of Protection of Personal Data in Possession of Individuals) does not consider data like religious, philosophical or moral beliefs, union affiliation, sexual orientation and biometric information as sensitive data nor does it establish the protection of biometric data of individuals. However, the Congress is still working on a reform of the General Law on Protection of Personal Data Held by Obliged Subjects (Ley General de Protección de Datos Personales en Posesión de Sujetos Obligados) to consider the religious, philosophical or moral beliefs, union affiliation, sexual orientation and biometric information as sensitive data.

This reform proposal originates from the needs currently generated by the Information and Communication Technologies and the use that is being given to the personal data of the individuals; changes, such as the famous reform to the policies of "Whats-App", evidence the commercialization of the personal data of individuals.

Therefore, this reform seeks to strengthen the protection of sensitive data and rule out any misuse that represents a risk for the society, especially the issue of the identity theft. According to official statistics provided by the Mexican Government in the first half of 2020 there were more than 3.1 million claims against different banks about said problem. In the same way, the Congress wants to establish the bases and procedures to guarantee the rights that individuals have to safeguard their personal data in the possession of obliged subjects.

In the event that this reform is approved, authorities and companies must modify their privacy notices, their platform or computer program for the protection of the personal data collected and their administrative, physical and technical security measures to fulfill the Law and avoid fines.

At the moment, the Deputies Chamber has already approved the proposal of the reform to the Law, so it is now the turn of the Senators Chamber to cast its vote in order to proceed to reform the Law.