By Tiffany Li*
As of publication
date, University of New South Wales Law Professor Graham Greenleaf’s Asian Data Privacy Laws: Trade and Human Rights Perspectives is the only comprehensive book available that examines and
aggregates the privacy laws of countries across Asia. This is important because
on an international level, Asian privacy law is relatively underdeveloped when
compared with the privacy law of other regions including the Americas and
Europe. With the rise of Asia as an economic and technological powerhouse,
Asian privacy laws are becoming increasingly crucial to any serious study of
international privacy law. Understanding the current status of privacy laws in
Asia is also essential for any U.S. or international entity that seeks to
influence or adapt to the future direction of privacy law both in Asia and, by extension,
the world.
In this landmark
treatise, Greenleaf begins with an overview of the international field of
privacy law as it currently stands, situating Asian data privacy law within the
context of (a) the larger history of Asian privacy protection and (b) the wide
range of privacy regimes in other regions of the world. The book then continues
with proposed methodological standards for comparing privacy laws across Asia,
before delving into the laws of each nation, with dedicated chapters for Hong
Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Japan, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia and other
ASEAN nations, as well as India and other SAARC nations.
