The celebration of the International Data Protection Day, observed every January 28th, serves as a significant framework to reflect upon, discuss, and disseminate knowledge regarding the importance of personal data protection and the right to privacy. It is worth using this framework to briefly review the current state of these crucial rights in Mexico and what lies ahead.

Firstly, it should be emphasized that there is currently intense legislative activity in the Mexican Congress. In terms of data privacy and personal data protection, 62 initiatives are currently under discussion. Out of these 62 initiatives, 44 are related to the processing of personal data by private entities; 11 are linked to the processing of personal data by the public sector, and 7 initiatives apply to the processing of personal data by both public entities and private entities.

The path towards adherence to Convention 108+ is also being paved, along with the adoption of Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC) to improve the regulation of cross-border data flows. This is essential considering the vast amount of data currently required by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

Regarding AI, Mexico is closely monitoring legislative efforts to regulate this technology in other regions such as Europe and the United States, with the aim of proposing its own model to regulate this technology in all areas that impact our lives, including privacy and the protection of personal data.

Currently, there are 29 proposed laws related to AI in the Mexican Congress. Experience indicates that the high number of initiatives being discussed is not necessarily the best signal, as many of these initiatives may only serve political or electoral purposes and are not well-thought-out or elaborated.

However, authorities from the INAI (National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information, and Personal Data Protection) and those dedicated to this field believe that it is the opportune moment to make legislators listen to experts and authorities dedicated to this field, precisely seizing this political moment to achieve, among other things, the modernization of our Federal Law on the Protection of Personal Data Held by Private Parties.

Among INAI authorities and privacy experts, there seems to be a good consensus that what is sought is AI regulation that only contains minimum standards based on ethics in the use of this technology, avoiding overregulation and seeking to regulate what technology can impact in our lives rather than regulating the technology itself.

As can be seen, this year looks promising for the protection of personal data in Mexico.