Educating Students on the Qatari Personal Data Privacy Law

This article does not provide an understanding of the law, nor does it discuss its clauses and articles from a purely legal point of view. It essentially aims to raise awareness about it and to give recommendations and guidelines on how to guide students on the proper application of the Personal Data Privacy law in Qatar. As an educator, you must be aware of some legal advice to share with your students so that they can use them now and later in their life. This will ensure that they don’t violate the state’s law and a tool to defend and protect themselves against cyberbullying. The learning process is not only about school subjects; it’s also about educating students as citizens to become responsible today and effective in the future. 

Each Individual has the right to the protection of the Personal Data thereof that shall be processed only within the framework of transparency, honesty, and respect of human dignity and acceptable practices according to provisions hereof. 

(Article 3 of the Qatari Personal Data Privacy Law) 

What is Personal Data Privacy Law? 

It’s a law issued by HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, on November 13, 2016, to protect personal data when processed electronically or when processed using a combination of electronic and traditional processing. 

Why it is important to teach my students about it? 

As the use of technology grows constantly and students are accessing websites, learning platforms, and social media, either for learning or for entertainment and communication purposes, it is more than necessary today to raise their level of awareness on the laws that govern their behaviors and handling of their personal data online, so they can be aware of their rights and limits, and the consequences of not respecting the law and to abide by the obligations stated by the law. But first, the educator needs to have a good knowledge of the law and its provisions and how to simplify making it easy to be understood by the students.   

It is also particularly important to educate students about the law to better understand the personal data concept and the dangers of sharing information online irresponsibly, as this would constitute a breach of the law and would have indirect harmful effects on the students themselves and the others as well. Legal awareness can help students to develop a sense of responsibility and to recognize their important role as effective members of society. 

In a survey published in Al-Sharq, a Qatari newspaper, most of those people surveyed agreed that the law includes provisions that deal with the users’ important personal information and protect them against cyberattacks which are now omnipresent, particularly those about the use of personal data in marketing and other activities, for legal or illegal purposes.  

Provisions hereof shall apply to Personal Data when it is electronically processed, or obtained, gathered or extracted in preparation in any other way for electronic processing, or when processed via a combination of electronic and traditional processing. 

(Article 2 of the Qatari Personal Data Privacy Law) 

How do I explain the law in simple terms for my students? 

Definitely not by discussing the law’s provisions and articles, but by giving specific recommendations and guidelines that highlight general principles on how to keep the privacy of personal data and comply by the law, and by warning against the risks of not complying with the law. Here are the following tips:   

• Thoroughly read the law and make sure you’re able to share its content and have good knowledge about its articles and provisions. For example, what’s the purpose of the law? What needed information contained in the law should you use? How and why it will be used? 
• Raise students’ awareness that the internet is not a place to share their personal data, circulate important information, or disclose personal matters, particularly on social media platforms and in chat rooms, or on websites allowing pop-ups. It is also important to raise their awareness of the importance of not having conversations with strangers, even about general topics. 
• Privacy is the most important online principle and your students must understand it. If they share data and information, events and developments, and even general posts without fact-checking them, and unnecessarily violating other people’s privacy, they would be held accountable by the competent authorities. 
• The Qatari Personal Data Privacy Law was basically designed to protect individuals from online risks, ranging from cyberattacks and cyber-security issues to cyberbullying and verbal abuse. So, explain to the students the importance of knowing their limits without getting involved in transgressions with others, and to make a legal and optimal use of the internet.  
• The Qatari Personal Data Privacy Law stresses the importance of the presence of a “controller”, a person who decides how personal data may be processed and what for, and a “processor”, a person who processes personal data for the benefit of the controller. While these two persons have legal capacity, they may not process personal data without the user’s prior consent and unless the data processing is required for a lawful purpose. So, explain to the students that whenever their personal data need to be processed for a particular reason, it would be totally legal to review such data, without any risk of legal consequences being entailed. 
• Sensitive personal data, particularly data related to ethnicity, health or physical condition, and religious beliefs, might be not clear for students. So, it’s important to make these concepts more understandable before moving on to the law and emphasize the importance of respecting such data, so students can have a human and legal understanding of these concepts.