Habeas Data (Colombia's personal data protection law)
Every person's right, in Colombia, to know, update, and correct the data a company holds about them.
What is Habeas Data, and what does my business need to do to comply with Colombia's Statutory Law 1581 of 2012?
Habeas Data is the right protected under Article 15 of Colombia's Constitution: every person can know, update, and correct information collected about them in databases or files. Statutory Law 1581 of 2012, issued on October 17 of that year, builds out that right specifically for personal data.
The law defines personal data as any information tied to, or that can be linked to, a natural person, and it requires the data subject's prior, express, and informed authorization before that data can be processed. Data belonging to children and teenagers gets special protection, and the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce oversees enforcement.
Why it matters to your business
Almost every business holds personal data: customers, orders, contact forms, employees. Complying with the law starts with asking for authorization before storing that data, explaining what it will be used for, and responding when someone asks to see or correct it. Fines for individuals can reach 2,000 times Colombia's monthly minimum wage.
How we use this at Damorus
URG Technology's privacy practices follow Law 1581: the store never stores card numbers, and when a customer asks to have their information deleted, it anonymizes the record so their name, ID number, contact details, and address disappear without throwing off the accounting. The PIN used to track an order gets deleted automatically five days after delivery. Atlantic Center has no public web version on purpose, because protecting the data mattered more than the convenience, and the planned parent portal was pushed to a future phase out of concern for the minors' privacy.
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