Director-General of the Dubai Municipality, Dawoud Al Hajri, announced on Twitter, on 1 March 2021, that Dubai is enhancing its digital infrastructure and its Internet of Things ('IoT') platform and systems in order to introduce modern technological innovations. OneTrust DataGuidance confirmed the news with, Raza Rizvi, Partner at Simmons & Simmons Middle East LLP, who noted that, ''Dubai has a bold overarching digital vision, but in the background, there are concerns about inconsistent approaches to digitalisation and the roll-out of IoT use cases. Within the overall Dubai machinery, we're seeing that there are some clear leaders and laggards in the digitalisation race.''

Rizvi also outlined that, ''On IoT, the concerns around data security and protection of certain types of data are very apparent in the Federal Telecommunication Regulatory Authority's IoT regulatory policy which contains concepts inspired by the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) ('GDPR'), including purpose limitation, data minimisation, and storage limitation. As the Emirate makes strides towards achieving its vision, it's clear that in doing so, it will not compromise in its laws on addressing data-related risks. The wider industry which plays a key role in supporting Dubai's digitalisation cannot afford to ignore or take the underlying dynamics and policies on data lightly.''

You can read the announcement here.