In this privacyespresso we discussed privacy and cybersecurity in Costa Rica with Fabian Solis, data privacy expert from the law firm Aguilar Castillo Love.
First of all, Fabian explains that Costa Rica is becoming a hub for cybersecurity thanks to its participation in relevant initiatives such as the OECD and the Budapest Convention on cybersecurity. Additionally, under the data protection perspective, Costa Rica has had a local data protection law since 2011 and a local agency for its surveillance, which are the key requirements of the most developed data privacy frameworks worldwide. This highlights how the country is investing in these fields. According to Fabian, even if Costa Rica is still low in maturity, it will grow fast thanks to a straightforward approach aligned with the principal privacy regulations.
Fabian foresees a significant growth of Costa Rica in the field also thanks to the fact that they have a national cybersecurity strategy enforced in 2017 that still needs to be implemented correctly but that will determine a relevant improvement once applied. In fact, this will support companies in having a common path to follow in the future development of their data privacy strategies.
Additionally, Costa Rica was recently involved in two waves of data breaches hitting them at various governmental levels, including tax, customs, and health authorities. This very relevant crisis that Costa Rica is witnessing will probably push the Government to speed up the overall privacy and cybersecurity development process.
To conclude, Fabian’s advice for Companies having business or planning to have business in Costa Rica is to start observing the basic framework thoroughly while preparing tailor-made solutions and strategies that keep them flexible. This would allow them to react immediately to the upcoming steps in the country and be among the first to enter this evolving business. Costa Rica has already everything in place to have data privacy flourishing, so it is worth starting to work on it seriously as a future investment.
To learn more, watch this privacyespresso here