Data Protection Act, 2021, sensitive personal data, children and vulnerable persons

Data Protection Act, 2021, ss. 14 and 17 (sensitive personal data, children and vulnerable persons)

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In force since 1 April 2021.

A sensitive categories rule binding public and private bodies.

As of 19 September 2026.

What it requires

Obtain explicit consent, or rely on another applicable ground, before processing sensitive personal data, including biometric or genetic data, a child's data, political opinions, or health information.
Process a child's or a vulnerable person's personal data only with the consent of their parent, legal guardian or a person exercising parental responsibility.
Make every reasonable effort to verify that consent for a child's or a vulnerable person's personal data was given or authorised by that person, taking available technology into account.
Build appropriate age-verification and parental-consent mechanisms into any processing of a child's personal data.
Where you rely on the public-interest ground for sensitive personal data, put adequate measures in place first to safeguard the data subject's rights and freedoms, and where you rely on the medical ground, process only by or under the responsibility of a professional bound to secrecy.

What it reaches

Obligation class

Prohibition, Consent, Biometric, Age verification

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 2 defines sensitive personal data to include genetic data and biometric data, child abuse data, a data subject's political opinions, religious or similar beliefs, trade union membership, and physical or mental health or condition.

Section 14 bars anyone from processing sensitive personal data unless the processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal claim or for a court exercising a judicial function, necessary for preventive or occupational medicine, assessing an employee's working capacity, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services, or necessary for reasons of public interest; the medical ground runs only where the processing is by or under the responsibility of a professional subject to secrecy, and the public-interest ground only where adequate measures to safeguard the data subject's rights and freedoms are in place.

Section 17 lets a child's or a vulnerable person's rights be exercised by a parent, legal guardian or person with parental responsibility, bars a data controller from processing their personal data without that person's consent, requires every reasonable effort to verify that the consent was given or authorised taking available technology into account, and requires appropriate mechanisms for age verification and parental consent in processing a child's personal data.

A vulnerable person is someone aged 18 or above whose ability to make informed decisions about their rights and well-being is temporarily or permanently impaired. Section 1 leaves commencement to a statutory instrument appointed by the Minister. The Data Protection Act (Commencement) Order, 2021 brought the Act into operation on 1 April 2021, which is the day these provisions began to bind.

When LexLint raises it

crawls_web
trains_models
processes_biometrics
serves_minors
handles_health_records

Read the law

Official Act text as published by the National Assembly of Zambia (Parliament of Zambia)

Every line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.

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