Arun Kumar Shrivastav
In a surprise move, the Government on August 3 withdrew the much-awaited Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill from Parliament. After it was introduced in Lok Sabha in December 2019, the PDP Bill was referred to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), which tabled the bill on 16 December 2021, in Parliament. It proposed a single law for both personal and non-personal data. One of the controversial recommendations was related to the localization of data, which asked for certain kinds of data to be stored locally – in India. Tech companies including entities like Google and Facebook found this untenable.
Apart from the JPC recommendation of localization of data, the bill faced criticism from civil liberty activists on privacy issues as well. Several ministers and political leaders criticized the bill for intending to breach the privacy of individuals and endanger the security and confidentiality of commercial data. The mechanism of sharing private information of the users would be against the people’s right to maintain their privacy, critics argued.
The bill proposed to create a data privacy mechanism for every user who registers with an online service provider from India or uses online services from India and the responsibility for creating this mechanism was to rest with the tech company. It was supposed to identify the data into three categories — sensitive, critical, and general data. Sensitive data related to finance, health, sexual, religious, or political beliefs. This was to be stored in India. However, sensitive data could be allowed to be processed outside India with consent. Critical data that was to be defined by the Government from time to time was to be processed and stored in India. Data that belonged to neither of these categories was termed general data, the bill put on conditions on where this data set was to be processed or stored.
Although experts ruled out that the bill would dilute the right to privacy by storing the data and further transferring it to the Government if required. But that did not seem to convince activists or businesses.
Given the fact that data is considered to be the next oil as far as its commercial value is concerned, everyone wants to be in control of the data. While businesses would not like to share their data, tech companies having access to public data such as Google or Facebook are already using them for commercial objectives. In fact, the data game has gone much far and it’s beyond the control of any given business. In this light, Governments trying to have a say in the matter or trying to control is logical and easy to understand. But any such attempt will not only be opposed by the people and businesses but even by big tech companies, who might even sponsor such opposition.
Caught in a difficult spot, the government finally decided to withdraw the PDP bill and promised to bring a new bill in its place very soon. Union Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said that the government has decided to formulate a fresh bill based on the suggestions made by the JPC and others. The JPC has proposed 81 amendments and 12 recommendations for a legal framework covering personal and non-personal data and the digital ecosystem.
The Government’s failure to get its data protection bill through the parliament underscores the fact that the bill had shortcomings. Were these serious enough to force the Government to take the bill back from Parliament to the drawing board? Well, if it’s so it reflects poorly on the capability of the departments and ministries concerned. The PDP bill was introduced in 2019 and the JPC carried out studies and consultations for a good two years. Even then, the bill was not good to go! Some reports suggest that the PDP bill was in the works for at least 5 years. If the work began 5 years back and if the original framework for the bill was based on the digital life before 2019, it was certainly outdated.
After the Government’s less than convincing approach to the entire blockchain industry, its failure to push its data protection bill in parliament points to a weak spot in the Government. Is the Government essentially tech-shy and weak on tapping the opportunities that exist on the frontiers of technology? India has a big technology sector and it needs to compete with global entities, particularly China which seems to have all the businesses and solutions in the big tech space while India is lagging far behind. The Government must show that it’s committed to furthering India’s tech prowess and potential. (IPA)
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