Thailand’s First Privacy Law Carries EU-Like Rules

Companies will need permission to collect the data of citizens in Thailand under the nation’s first privacy law, even if they don’t have a physical presence in the country.

The Personal Data Protection Act will require businesses to obtain individuals’ consent before collecting their data and let them retroactively revoke consent for data collected before May 27, 2020, when most of the law takes effect.

The law, passed in May and signed by the king, was modeled after the European Union’s 2018 General Data Protection Regulation, which carries fines of up to the greater of 4% of annual revenues or ...