The National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information, and Personal Data Protection (INAI)
The National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information, and Personal Data Protection (INAI) is the Mexican autonomous constitutional body that guarantees two fundamental rights: access to public information and protection of personal data both in public and private sectors; by promoting a general culture of transparency and government´s accountability to society.
Its main goals are:
Objective 1: Guarantee, promote, supervise and monitor the rights of access to public information and the protection of personal data, as well as the transparency and openness of public institutions.
Objective 2: Guarantee the proper use of personal data by protecting the rights of access, rectification, cancellation, and opposition that everyone has concerning their information.
Objective 3: Promote a results-oriented public service institutional model focusing on human rights and a gender perspective.
The protection of personal data and privacy is a fundamental right in the Mexican Constitution enshrined in Article 16th of the Mexican Constitution.
The law grants the INAI the power to disseminate knowledge of this right among Mexican society, promote its exercise, and monitor its due observance by the entities that possess personal data. It has the power to:
– Conduct administrative investigations and interventions
– Initiate legal proceedings or address judicial authorities in connection with violations of the law
– Hear claims
– Impose administrative sanctions
The INAI has maintained an international activity by regularly participating in the main regional and international cooperation mechanisms, since they are spaces for debate and generation of knowledge with a high technical level and are forums in which policies and international standards are proposed. At these forums, it is possible to position emerging issues in the political-administrative agendas of governments and, at the same time, promote effective dialogue with civil society organizations and other interested actors.
To date, INAI participates in the following cooperation mechanisms:
- Global Privacy Assembly
- Committee of the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data (Convention 108)
- Ibero-American Data Protection Network
- Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities Forum
- International Association of Privacy Professionals
- Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development working groups
- Global Privacy Enforcement Network
- Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Digital Economy Steering Group (DESG) Data Privacy Subgroup