Data Protection Act, 2011
Act No. 13 of 2011 (Data Protection Act), Chap. 22:04
A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.
Commencement not set.
A comprehensive regime rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 5 September 2026.
What it requires
- The private-sector duties this Act would impose (Part IV) are enacted but have not been proclaimed and are not yet in force; only the General Privacy Principles in Part I and the establishment of the Office of the Information Commissioner (part of Part II) are currently in operation.
- Once Part IV is in force, identify the purpose for collecting personal information before or at the time of collection, and collect, use, or disclose it only with the individual's knowledge and consent.
- Retain personal information no longer than necessary for the purpose collected, keep it accurate and complete, and protect it with safeguards appropriate to its sensitivity.
- The condition on disclosing personal information outside Trinidad and Tobago, that comparable safeguards exist in the receiving jurisdiction, is part of the General Privacy Principles already in force.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionNo
Criminal exposure note
An individual convicted of an offence under the Act is liable, on indictment, to a fine of up to $100,000 or imprisonment for up to five years (s. 95(1)); Part V, which creates these offences, has not been proclaimed and is not in force.
Penalty structure
Individual offender: summary conviction fine of up to $50,000 or imprisonment for three years; conviction on indictment, fine of up to $100,000 or imprisonment for five years (s. 95(1)). A body corporate is liable to a fine of $250,000 on summary conviction or $500,000 on indictment (s. 95(2)), and the Court may separately impose a fine of up to ten percent of the corporation's annual turnover for a contravention (s. 96(1)). Part V, which states these offences, has not been proclaimed and is not in force.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- 5 September 2026
- Currency
- TTD
- Fixed cap
- 100,000
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Office of the Information Commissioner
What it reaches
Obligation class
Consent, Disclosure, Data subject rights, Retention, Security, Transfer
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Section 6 states the General Privacy Principles, applicable to all persons who handle, store, or process personal information belonging to another person: an organisation is responsible for personal information under its control, must identify the collection purpose before or at collection, needs the individual's knowledge and consent for collection, use, or disclosure, must retain the information no longer than necessary, keep it accurate, and protect it with safeguards appropriate to its sensitivity, and may disclose it outside Trinidad and Tobago only where comparable safeguards exist in the receiving jurisdiction.
Section 69 (Part IV) would apply the General Privacy Principles to any person who collects, retains, manages, uses, processes, or stores personal information in Trinidad and Tobago, or who collects it from individuals there, and sections 70 to 86 would let the Commissioner require industry codes of conduct and give individuals a right to access and correct personal information held by an organisation.
Section 1(2) provides that Part I and sections 7 to 18, 22, 23, 25(1), 26, and 28 came into operation on 6 January 2012 under Legal Notice No. 2 of 2012; Part IV and Part V, which state the private-sector duties and the Act's offences and penalties, are not listed among the commenced provisions and have not been proclaimed.
When LexLint raises it
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Read the law
Consolidated text of the Data Protection Act
Chap. 22:04, Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs, mirrored by the Trinidad and Tobago Cyber Security Incident Response Team