-Hrithik Rana
Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 was introduced in Lok Sabha by the Minister of Energy and Information Technology, Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad, on December 11, 2019. The bill seeks to provide for the protection of personal data, and establishes Data. The Protection Authority is the same.
Why is the law important?
Collecting information about individuals and their online activities has become an important source of profit, but it is also a possible way to attack privacy because it can be very revealing.
Companies, governments, and political parties find it helpful because they can use it to find convincing ways to advertise online.
To prevent a breach of privacy and unauthorized advertising, this bill was a necessity
Applicability:
The bill regulates the processing of personal data: (i) government, (ii) companies incorporated in India, and (iii) foreign companies dealing with the personal data of Indian people. Personal data is data relating to features, features, or attributes of ownership, which can be used to identify an individual. The Bill classifies personal data as sensitive personal data. This includes financial data, biometric data, category, religious or political beliefs, and any other category of data specified by the government, in consultation with the Authority and the regulator of the sector concerned.
Significance of data:
1. Data is a large collection of information stored on a computer or network.
2. Data is collected and managed by organizations called data fiduciaries.
3. While the fiduciary controls how and why data is processed, the processing itself may be by a third party, the data processor.
4. The processing of this data (based on individual online practices and preferences, but without prior knowledge of the subject of the data) has become an important source of profit for large companies.
5. Apart from that, this has become a potential way to attack privacy, as it can expose very personal traits.
6. Also, it is now clear that much of the future economy and world affairs will be considered in data management.
7. The physical characteristics of the data – where the data is stored, where it is sent, and when it is converted into a useful object – are called data flow. The issue of local data processing is based on the idea that data flow determines who has access to data, who makes a profit from it, who charges it, and who owns it.
Key definitions
Data principal: The person whose data is stored and processed is called the data principal in the PDP Bill.
Data fiduciary: A ‘data fiduciary’ may be a service provider that collects, stores, and uses data while providing those goods and services.
Data transfer: Data is transported across country borders by underwater cables.
Personal Data protection bill’s purpose
The B N Srikrishna committee demanded that all honest people keep a copy of all personal information in India, which was criticized by foreign technology companies that kept a lot of Indian information abroad. The bill, however, divides the data into three categories and authorizes retention within Indian borders depending on the type of data.
The bill enlarges the data as follows:
Personal data: Data where a person can be identified as name, address, etc.
Sensitive personal data: Other types of personal data such as financial, health, gender selection, biometric, genetic, transgender status, category, religious belief, and more.
Critical personal data: Anything the government can at any time consider important, such as military or national security data.
The Bill removes the requirement to display data (in the event of personal data). Only individual permissions are required for data transfer abroad.
The Bill also requires communication platform companies, regarded as essential data experts based on factors such as volume and sensitivity of the data, to improve their method of assuring users.
Provisions of the bill
The bill includes exemptions from the processing of data without personal consent for “reasonable purposes”, including state security, detection of any illegal activity or fraud, reporting, medical emergencies, credit score, search engine operation, and processing of publicly available data.
Each company will have a Data Protection Officer (DPO) who will liaise with the DPA to investigate, resolve complaints, record keeping, and more.
The Bill proposes the clauses of “objective determination” and the “collection limit”, which limits the collection of information to what is required for “clear, straightforward and legitimate purposes”.
The Bill seeks to establish an independent information protection body, which will oversee auditing and auditing and commentary.
It also gives individuals the right to data management and the ability to access and transfer personal data. It also gives individuals the right to data management, as well as the ability to access and transfer personal data.
Finally, it legislates the right to forget. With historical roots in European Union law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), this right allows a person to remove a permit for data collection and disclosure.
The Bill has introduced penalties such as Rs 5 crore or 2 percent of global profits for minor violations and Rs 15 crore or 4 percent of global revenue for gross violations.
Also, the managing director of a company may face up to three years in prison.
Advantages of bill
Local data processing can enable law enforcement agencies to access investigative and enforcement data.
Cases of cyber-attacks and surveillance will be considered.
Recently, many WhatsApp accounts have been hacked by Israeli software called Pegasus.
The social media platform is used to spread false information, which has led to attacks on people, and threats to national security, which can now be viewed, evaluated and blocked in time.
Strict data protection legislation will also help enforce data dominance.
Local data processing will also increase the Indian government’s ability to tax internet giants.
Disadvantages of the bill
Many argue that the physical location of data is not important in the cyber world. Even if data is stored locally, encryption keys may not be accessible to national agencies.
National security or good intentions are open conditions, this could lead to state interference in the private lives of citizens.
The defense regime presses prices on a global, competitive online marketplace, where cost and speed determine the flow of information rather than national boundaries.
Technology giants like Facebook and Google have criticized the protectionist policy on data protection (data localization).
The defense regime presses prices on a global, competitive online marketplace, where cost and speed determine the flow of information rather than national boundaries.
Also, it could result in small Indian startups trying to grow globally, or in large factories processing foreign data in India.
Judgment of this bill
According to the Supreme Court in a Puttaswamy (2017) judgment, the right to privacy is a fundamental right and it is necessary to protect personal data as an integral part of information privacy, while digital economic growth is essential to unlocking new ones. ideas for socio-economic growth.
In this context, the government’s data protection policy should not prevent the development of any digital economic growth policy, to the extent that it does not violate the privacy of personal data.
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