Data Protection Bill Likely To Be Tabled Today: Here Is Everything You Need To Know It will be part of the 31 Bills that will be presented before the Parliament
By S Shanthi
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The draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill (DPDP)is slated to be tabled in the Parliament this monsoon session, which begins today. It will be part of the 31 Bills that will be presented before the Parliament.
On July 5th, the Union Cabinet approved the draft DPDP Bill for tabling in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament, according to a PTI report, citing an official source.
The bill proposes to levy a penalty of up to INR 250 crore on entities for every instance of violation of norms in the bill. According to the source, the bill includes almost all the provisions of the last draft that was issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology for consultation.
"The purpose of this Act is to provide for the processing of digital personal data in a manner that recognizes both the right of individuals to protect their personal data and the need to process personal data for lawful purposes, and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto," according to an official statement by the government. Here is everything you need to know about the bill.
What is DPDP and why is it needed?
The initial draft of the bill was introduced in November of last year and after several rounds of public consultation. The Joint Parliamentary Committee reportedly suggested stricter compliance requirements for companies. "Sufficient safeguards have been provided in the bill to ensure that data is only accessed through a fair and proportionate procedure," head of the committee PP Chaudhary said. According to reports, the committee proposed over 200 amendments.
It all started in August 2017 when the Supreme Court said that privacy is a fundamental right and that the privacy of personal data and facts is an important part of the right to privacy. A nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India, during the hearings in the K.S. Puttaswamy vs. Union of India (2017) "right to privacy" case, affirmed the right to privacy as a fundamental right. Later, a nine-member expert committee was created to examine various issues related to data protection in India, headed by Justice B. N. Srikrishna. In July 2018, the Committee submitted its report and a draft Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
"I want to say that we had the widest consultation possible including from eminent people from all over the country. When we come to you, you will surely feel that India's data protection law is of a robust nature," said the then Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Many experts raised questions about the bill that was likely to be tabled in the coming week. Justice Srikrishna himself called the bill dangerous. It proposed allowing law enforcement agencies to process personal data of data principals (users) without consent for reasonable purposes with exemptions in cases of prevention and detection of any unlawful activity including fraud, whistleblowing, mergers and acquisitions, network and information security, credit scoring, recovery of debt, processing of publicly available personal data and operation of search engines.
On 11th December 2019, PDP Bill 2019 was tabled in the Indian Parliament by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The Bill was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee for detailed examination. Many media reports said that the report was expected by the Budget Session, 2020. By July of the following year, five members, including Chairperson of the Joint Committee on Personal Data Protection Bill Meenakshi Lekhi, were inducted into the Council of Ministers.
Developed economies have also framed the laws. Here is a look at it.
Data protection laws in the US, Europe
As internet penetration increases, countries are realizing the importance of keeping a firm privacy law in place. "137 out of 194 countries had put in place legislation to secure the protection of data and privacy. Africa and Asia show different level of adoption with 61 and 57 per cent of countries having adopted such legislations. The share in the least developed countries in only 48 per cent," says UNCTAD report.
United States
The US introduced the Privacy Act in 1974. The act governs how federal agencies can collect and use data about individuals. It also prohibits agencies from disclosing personal information without written consent from the individual. However, this is subject to limited exceptions. This year, Virginia became the second state after California to come up with state-level data privacy law. According to news reports, similar laws in Colorado, Connecticut and Utah will be effective this year.
Europe
According to experts, the EU general data protection regulation (GDPR) is the strongest privacy and security law in the world. This was introduced in 2016 and came into place on 25 May 2018.
The GDPR, according to European Council, defines:
- Individuals' fundamental rights in the digital age
- The obligations of those processing data
- Methods for ensuring compliance
- Sanctions for those in breach of the rules
With inputs from Teena Jose
