The Joint Parliamentary Committee report on the Data Protection Bill was presented in Rajya Sabha on Thursday making way for the first data protection law in India. While India has become one of the biggest internet economies worldwide and also fueling the global tech talent, there needs to be clear laws on what’s permissible and what’s not, considering data is the new oil.
The report presented by the committee will be soon up for debate for MPs but if it gets passed, here’s what to expect from the law that prioritises safeguarding both personal and non-personal data and more importantly there will be an authority for data protection.
“This report shows that if the chairman is cooperative, the government is accommodative, the opposition is responsive…,” said Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh pointing out that coordinated efforts should be there in the Parliament. An important question to ask here is what does the data protection bill aims to achieve? Here’s how the Data Protection Bill wants to help you with your online life. The salient features of the bill include:
1. To promote the concepts such as consent framework, purpose limitation, storage limitation and data minimization.
2. To lay down obligations on entities collecting personal data (data fiduciary) to collect only that data which is required for a specific purpose and with the express consent of the individual (data principal).
3. To confer rights on the individual to obtain personal data, correct inaccurate data, erase data, update the data, port the data to other fiduciaries and the right to restrict or prevent the disclosure of personal data.
4. To establish an Authority to be called the “Data Protection Authority of India” (the Authority) which shall consist of a Chairperson and not more than six whole-time Members to be appointed by the Central Government.
5. To to provide that the Authority shall protect the interests of data principals, prevent any misuse of personal data, ensure compliance with the provisions of the proposed legislation and promote awareness about the data protection.
6. To specify a provision relating to “social media intermediary” whose actions have significant impact on electoral democracy, security of the State, public order or the sovereignty and integrity of India and to empower the Central Government, in consultation with the Authority, to notify the said intermediary as a significant data fiduciary.
7. To confer a “right of grievance” on data principal to make a complaint against the grievance to the data fiduciary and if aggrieved by the decision of such data fiduciary, he may approach the Authority.
8. To empower the Central Government to exempt any agency of Government from application of the proposed Legislation.
9. To empower the Authority to specify the “code of practice” to promote good practices of data protection and facilitate compliance with the obligations under this legislation.
10. To appoint “Adjudicating Officers” for the purpose of adjudging the penalties to be imposed and the compensation to be awarded under the provisions of this legislation.
11. To establish an “Appellate Tribunal” to hear and dispose of any appeal from an order of the Authority under Clause 54 and the Adjudicating Officer under Clauses 63 and 64.
12. To impose “fines and penalties” for contravention of the provisions of the proposed legislation.
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