Judicial police officers and agents assigned to the control and litigation department of the Personal Data Protection Authority (APDP) held a series of meetings to operationalize processing compliance checks and site visits throughout March 2023.
These meetings follow on from the provisions of the Digital Code, which give the APDP the power to carry out investigations, verifications and checks on the processing of personal data on the territory of the Republic of Benin.
Members of the Data Protection Authority and its departments’ staff shall monitor the implementation of the processing. To this end, they shall have access, between six a.m. and eleven p.m., in the course of their duties, to the places, premises, enclosures, installations or establishments used for the processing of personal data.
Ministers, public authorities, managers of public or private companies, heads of various groups and, more generally, the holders and users of personal data may not, in principle, oppose the action of the Data Protection Authority.
This joint training is a prelude to the control missions that it will no doubt initiate from now on throughout the country.
It is important to emphasise that the APDP has extensive powers to ensure that the processing of personal data complies with the applicable law. Data controllers who fail to comply with the rules may be subject to administrative penalties.
This APDP initiative should help to improve the protection of personal data in Benin by guaranteeing respect for citizens’ fundamental rights to privacy and the protection of personal data.