The Office of the Public Defender Privacy Notice
Introduction
We use this privacy notice to disclose the privacy practices of https://www.opd.gov.jm in accordance with privacy regulations, such as the Jamaica Data Protection Act. We aim to help you understand what personal data we collect, how we use it, and what control you have over it. This notice applies solely to data collected by https://www.opd.gov.jm. This notice will define the following:
- What personal data is collected from the website.
- How personal data is collected, used, shared, stored, and otherwise processed.
- The security procedures implemented to protect your data.
- Your choices and rights regarding the use of your data.
- How you can contact us for issues such as correcting inaccuracies of your data or to request the removal of your personal data.
Please read the following privacy notice to understand the processing, collection, sharing, protection, and your rights associated with your personal data.
Who We Are
The Office of the Public Defender is the legal body that investigates complaints of constitutional breaches, maladministration by a Ministry, Government Department, Agency, Statutory body, or body corporate in which the government of Jamaica has a 51% shareholding.
It is our mission to honour the rights of aggrieved individuals and provide redress, and to do so we collect and use personal data that you provide.
For the purposes of this notice, we act as the “data controller.” We take on this role as we determine how your personal data is used and processed.
We have appointed a Data Protection Officer to assist with questions, requests, and complaints regarding this privacy notice and the collection and processing of your personal data. For details on how to contact us, see the Contact Information section at the end of this notice.
Data We Collect
We have access to any data that you voluntarily provide via email, telephone, forms, chat functions, user registration, newsletter sign-up, contests, surveys, and our website.
Through these means, we collect the following types of data:
- Personal Identifiers: Name, ID Numbers
- Contact Details: Address
- Demographic Details: Gender, Age/Date of Birth,
- Education History: Qualification, History
- Employment Information: Occupation, Position, Employer’s detail
- Financial Information: Bank Account Details
- Online Details: Email, IP Address, Cookie Identifiers, RFI Tags
- Other Information: Relationship to other persons (Next of Kin, Biological Relations), Biometric Data (Fingerprint, Blood Type, Eye Colour, Height, Signature, Voice Recordings), Membership in any Trade Union,), Physical/Mental Condition
How We Use Your Data
The Office of the Public Defender may use your personal data for the following purposes:
- Gather data on possible candidates for an open position
- Managing payroll and promotion matters
- Administration of employee separation process
- Provision of health insurance benefit
- Pension Benefits
- Gratuity Payments
- Leave Benefits
- Staff Benefits
- Staff Training
- Payment of Suppliers
- Payment of Staff
- Conduct complaint investigation
- Determination of complaint jurisdiction
- Determination of case continuation or if there is a delay
- Record of complaint correspondence
- Determination of whether the OPD can be handle the matter from the client's perspective
- Determination of whether the OPD can provide support
- [Other…]
Legal Basis of Processing
The Data Protection Act, 2020 (JDPA) defines six legal grounds that must be justified to warrant relevant conditions for data processing:
- Consent
- Contract
- Legal Obligation
- Legitimate Interest
- Public Interest
- Vital Interest
We process personal data for the purposes of our own legitimate interests, granted that those interests do not override any of our users’ own interests, rights, and freedoms. This legitimate interest includes processing for marketing, research, and business development purposes.
We also process personal data for other purposes with consent, but you have the right to withdraw consent to processing for specific purposes, as outlined below.
We also process personal data for the purpose of vital interest. This vital interest is for the purpose of providing information for the client’s benefit, so that the client can get redress, keeping with our vision of striving for equity for all.
Specific Data Use
To fully access the website, you, as a user, can voluntarily register for an account by completing a registration form. Certain data is collected during this process, including your name, email address, and phone number. This data is used to contact you, suggest appropriate services, and improve your user experience.
Personal data may be used without your knowledge or consent in situations when legally required or permitted, or when personal data has been anonymized or pseudonymized, so it is no longer associated with the user. This means we have removed personal identifying information so the data we’re left with cannot be tied back to you as an individual.
How We Share Your Data
The Office of the Public Defender may share your personal data with Public Authorities and Regulatory Authorities for the purposes of facilitating investigations, furtherance of investigations, payment of suppliers and employees, and providing case support.
Where We Process Your Data
If you are visiting https://www.opd.gov.jm from outside Jamaica, please be aware that you are sending personal information to our servers located in Jamaica.
Under certain circumstances, your personal data that we collect may be transferred to other countries for various purposes, such as when serving members of the diaspora, as those correspondences will cross borders.
How Long We Store Your Data
We will only retain personal data for the duration necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected. Personal data may also be retained for longer periods if it is solely for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes, or statistical purposes. When defining the appropriate retention length, we adhere to relevant legal requirements or the duration/date of a case.
How We Protect Your Data
Securing your data is a priority for us, both online and offline. We have implemented appropriate safeguards to prevent personal data from being lost, misused, accessed, altered, or disclosed by unauthorized parties.
This data is encrypted and secured throughout its transmission. Secure web access can be verified by the lock icon in your internet browser address bar and using “https” at the beginning of the web address, where the “s” indicates a secure connection.
Employees and third parties are provided with personal data only on a need-to-know basis and only the minimum amount they require to complete their specific job. All employees are also subject to confidentiality agreements/The Official Secrets Act and undergo annual training on the proper handling of sensitive data.
Procedures have been developed and tested to handle a potential data breach. These procedures are designed to ensure affected individuals and regulators are notified of the breach and damages can be minimized.
Use of Cookies
Cookies are used on https://www.opd.gov.jm for purposes various purposes. These “cookies” are data elements stored on your hard drive that allow us to improve your usage of our website. By using a cookie to identify you, you do not necessarily need to log in with a password more than once from the same browser, saving you time when accessing our site. In addition, we use cookies for advertising based on your usage history, storing, and managing your preferences on the website, enabling content, and generally analysing your usage. Usage of cookies may be linked to your personal data on the website.
Your Rights Regarding Your Personal Data
We aim to maintain data that is accurate and up to date. If your personal data changes (e.g. moving addresses), please notify us of any changes or update your data on the Settings page.
In certain instances, you have the legal right to the following:
- Request all data we have collected about you, if any.
- Request correction to the personal data we have collected about you.
- Request we delete or remove personal data when there is no legitimate need for us to continue processing it.
- Object to the processing of personal data.
- Request transfer of your personal data.
- Opt out of contact with us at any time.
- Express any concern about any data we have collected about you.
To exercise these rights, please contact us via the email, mail, or phone information provided below in the “Contact Information” section.
External Links
On our website, you may encounter links to other websites. Be aware that we are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of these other sites. We encourage all users to read the privacy notices of any other sites that collect your personal data.
Contact Information
For any questions, concerns, or requests to exercise your rights outlined in this privacy notice, please contact us via email at enquiries@opd.gov.jm, phone at 1(876) 922-7089/7090/7109/8256, or mail us at:
The Office of the Public Defender
5th Floor, Office Centre Building,
12 Ocean Boulevard,
Kingston, Jamaica
Changes to This Privacy Notice
This privacy notice was last updated on August 12, 2026.
Any changes to this privacy notice can be found on our website at https://www.opd.gov.jm/privacy-policy
