UNAIR NEWS – Faculty of Law Universitas Airlangga (FH UNAIR) presented Prof Michael Bohne in a guest lecture session on Tuesday, September 20, 2022. He is an expert on Media Law, Information Technology Law, Copyright Law, Competition Law, and Data Protection Law.

On that occasion, Prof Michael Bohne explained the importance of data protection regulations (data protection law), especially in Commercial Law. According to him, data has great value, like oil in 21st century. He emphasized that the price of data can be beyond expectations.

“Data is very important, you can sell data, you don’t even know what your data will be used for,” said Bohne.

It, continued Bohne, leads to greater potential for data protection law in the future. In addition, he also said that this decade, there will be many developments in Law due to digitalization.

“In the past, data protection law conferences were attended by nerds and computer experts, not lawyers, but a lot of high-end lawyers are attending now,” explained Bohne.

To support this statement, Prof Michael Bohne takes the example of Indonesia. According to him, Indonesia is in the process of passing the personal data protection bill (RUU PDP), while Germany and the European Union had already implemented regulations on the protection of personal data.

“The regulation is called the General Data Protection Regulation,” he said.

Furthermore, he also emphasized that the draft of PDP Bill is not much different from the GDPR applied in the European Union region. Indonesia, he continued, already has a data protection law draft that will be very similar to European law. Bohne also believed that the PDP Bill will positively impact Indonesia. Moreover, the PDP Bill can improve the business climate in Indonesia.

“The European Union has a data protection law like Indonesia’s draft of data protection law, and it will give many advantages in business,” explained Bohne about the positive effect GDPR has on business.

At the end of the lecture, Bohne emphasized the importance of companies’ roles if the PDP Bill is enacted. If the law has been made, he continued, the challenge is how to build up awareness in the business world.

“Companies need to be concerned about implementing data protection so that the legal application runs optimally,” he concluded.

Author: Fredrick Binsar Gamaliel M

Editor: Nuri Hermawan