Consumers are set to have their personal details protected from misuse for the first time in Bermuda with a proposed new law.

In yesterday's The Royal Gazette, a consultation document was published asking for feedback on the proposed Data Protection Legislation which could become law before next summer.

Minister of Tourism, Telecommunications and E-commerce Renee Webb said in a press release on Friday: "From the information we give to our banks or retailers, through the personal details of our children kept by schools, to the information, which by necessity, Government keeps about us. This document addresses what rights of access we should have to our own information, the obligations of the holder to keep it secure and accurate, and in what circumstances it could be transferred to a third party or sent out of Bermuda."

If it stays the course and is put forward by the end of this Parliamentary session, as hoped, it will be the first of the E-commerce Green Paper proposals to become law.

And the head of Government E-commerce department, Nigel Hickson, asked for members of the public to come forward with their opinion on the document and any cases of misuse of information they had come across.

"We are trying to get feedback which is why we put the document out there," said Mr. Hickson, who is the E-commerce advisor to the Government. "We are not trying to do a witch hunt, but if people out there have had any experience with misuse of information, we would like to hear about it."

And he said the legislation was important to make sure businesses kept personal details of their clients personal and promise not to transfer the information to anyone else.

"At the moment there is nothing that says that information cannot be passed on to a third party," he said.

Mr. Hickson explained that there were currently no laws in place to protect the consumer when they filled out personal information say at the doctor, dentist, sports centre or library.

And this could leave these consumers open to having details like their telephone number, address or e-mail being sold on to data collectors or marketers in the United States, who could, say sell it on to Spammers.

"Data protection does not immediately excite everyone," said Mr. Hickson. "But it does affect everyone."

He said putting this legislation onto the books would not stop spamming, but was important to keep the consumer protected from unscrupulous businesses who profited from selling on their details.

Mr. Hickson said that his department did not know of many cases where this kind of misuse, and asked anyone out there with details of this to contact his department.

When asked if there was a down side to the legislation, he said that there may potential cost to businesses as they would have to put systems in place to make sure the information they had collected was secure.

"Businesses would have to take on a lot more security and clean up their data bases," he said. "So there is a cost to businesses."

He said there would also be a cost to Government as a kind of watchdog or Ombudsman would have to be appointed to make sure the law was not being abused.

Mr. Hickson will today address Rotarians on the proposed Data Protection Legislation, and will speak at Tuscany restaurant at lunchtime.