KUWAIT Law and Practice Contributed by: Alex Saleh, Asad Ahmad, Mohammad Al Awadhi and Liana Rashid, GLA & Company
5.4 Blocking Statutes Kuwait has several laws and regulations related to blocking or censoring web content, some of which concern privacy and data protection. Key examples include the following. • The Press and Publications Law under Law No 3 of 2006 regulates the publication of printed and electronic media in Kuwait. It includes provisions related to blocking content that violates public order, morals or national security. This law gives the govern - ment the power to block websites or other media that violate these provisions. • The Cybercrime Law criminalises a wide range of online activities, including hacking and online fraud. This law gives the govern - ment the power to block websites or other online content that violates its provisions. • The CITRA Law regulates the telecommunica - tions sector in Kuwait and includes provisions related to blocking or intercepting commu - nications that violate public order, morals or national security. This law gives the govern - ment the power to block websites or other online content that violates these provisions. Among other prohibited content, CITRA receives requests to block web content in Kuwait that violates the public interest (including public mor - als, Islamic faith teachings and public order). If CITRA receives a request to block or unblock web content, it will take the necessary actions to block web content that contains any prohibited content or to unblock web content in the case of an error in classifying the content as prohibited.
5.5 Recent Developments Following the repeal of the Data Classification Policy, which previously classified sensitive data into different tiers, the regulatory framework for data storage and transfers has become less clear. Under the former policy, Tier 3 data (pri - vate sensitive data) included information such as business plans, internal reports, litigation files, medical records, and criminal fingerprints, which, if disclosed without authorisation, could damage individual privacy. Tier 4 data, consid - ered highly sensitive, included information of a national or governmental nature, and unauthor - ised disclosure of such data could cause signifi - cant harm to privacy. The Data Classification Policy required that Tier 4 data be stored within Kuwait, while Tier 3 data could be stored in hybrid clouds, both inside and outside Kuwait. Due to the repeal of the Data Classification Policy, the legislative framework surrounding the storage and transfer of sensitive data is now governed primarily by the consent provisions in the E-Transactions Law.
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