BT Tech Today Congress: Lawmakers discuss best way forward for data, privacy protection

At a time when social media engagement and digital presence have become the new normal and data protection is being widely talked about, three prominent law makers -- BJP’s Tejasvi Surya, Priyanka Chaturvedi of Shiv Sena (UBT) and former Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Gowda – got tother to deliberate on the issues, challenges and the way forward for data and privacy protection in the country.

“… we have to be very clear who owns this data. The personal data, of course, belongs to me... But the non-personal data belongs to my nation. And right now, we're sitting on a data which is very rich, diverse, and every company is looking at it to monetise it,” said Chaturvedi.

“So, we need to have processes in place, unfortunately, we are seeing a personal data protection bill, which is coming from the perspective of governments controlling the data. What we need to look at is a more neutral framework,” she said while speaking in a panel discussion with the theme, ‘Security Playbook: Data Privacy, Next-Gen Security, Governance & Compliance’.

This assumes significance as India’s long-awaited Digital Personal Data Protection Bill is likely be tabled in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament.

The proposed legislation aims to establish a framework for data protection in the country by regulating the collection, storage, processing and transfer of personal data by organisations and government agencies alike.

More importantly, the Bill is expected to have a far-reaching impact on businesses operating in India, particularly those that handle sensitive personal information, as it will require every entity collecting, storing, transferring or processing data to adopt the measures and safeguards established by the law.

Meanwhile, Surya of BJP highlighted the fact that the proposed Bill is trying to balance four key aspects – right to privacy of the data, security of the country, space for innovation, and India-centric principles.

“More than 2,000 representations and suggestions were made across the board by all stakeholders. Most of them have been positively considered and the government has taken all of these concerns into account and the draft bill that will be presented to Parliament, we are confident will… give primacy to the individual, his right to privacy, allow for space for new start-ups, think tanks and data fiduciaries to process data lawfully (and) have an effective data protection board to enforce the rights that are enumerated,” said Surya.  

Incidentally, the draft Bill highlights the consent of the user, which is ‘deemed’ and can be withdrawn at any point. It also requires data fiduciaries (persons who determine the purpose and means of processing personal data) to maintain the accuracy and security of data, and delete it once its purpose has been met.

Gowda of the Congress stressed on the point that there needs to be a neutral fact checking agency especially when there is so much talk of governments spreading misinformation for their own benefits.

“Who are the entities that are going to regulate this? Who are going to take action? My point is that a lot of misinformation emerges from government related sources. And the basic point is, who will regulate them? (Will) they start a neutral fact checking entity?” said Gowda.

“We do need to create regulatory setups that ensure that… whether it is… sexual exploitation, whether it's cyber bullying, all of these, that there are ways of going after the perpetrators. That has to be in place. We should basically create a role for government, which also has its own constraints, so that you don't have excessive government roles,” he added.

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