Colombia has implemented general regulations on Personal Data protection since 2012. Before the issuing of Law 1581 of 2012 (the Data Protection Law), the Government had issued a specific regulation on Personal Data protection exclusively applicable to financial data; also, the National Constitution of 1991 includes habeas data as a fundamental right, however that was not enough to effectively protect and ensure the rights of privacy for all citizens. 

Since the Data Protection Law was issued, its main goals have been to protect the rights of Data Subjects (individuals whose data is processed) and to ensure them that any company handling their data will comply with all the legal requirements. In this sense it is necessary that companies are aware of their operation regarding data handling in case they want to comply with the regulation.