THE DRAFT DIGITAL PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION BILL, 2022: SOME KEY FEATURES AND CONCERNS
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Abstract
The Government of India, through the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology or ‘MeitY’ officially released the Draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill on 18th November 2022 and invited applications from the public concerning feedback and relevant suggestions to be submitted by 17th December 2022 (the deadline was later extended to 2nd January 2023 in light of requests from multiple stakeholders). This marks the fourth attempt by the Government of India to construct a specific set of laws aimed at Data Protection and individual privacy in online platforms.
The attempts to draft such a Bill started with the Union Government creating an expert parliamentary committee under the leadership of Justice BN Srikrishna, which presented a Personal Data Protection Bill before the MeitY in July 2018, which was never enforced and was instead used by the MeitY to draft the Personal Data Protection Bill in December 2019. This Bill was then reviewed by a special Joint Parliamentary Committee, which released a report on the same, along with a draft Data Protection Bill 2021 to be presented in the Parliament. The present Bill arrived after the MeitY decided to withdraw the draft Data Protection Bill 2021 owing to certain unacceptable changes made to the original Data Protection Bill passed in 2019.
Till now, the issue of data privacy has been (and continues to be) addressed under the Information Technology Act of 2000 and the Information Technology Rules. Both of these legislations have so far proved inefficient in keeping up with the dizzying rate of technological advancements and satisfying the growing need for data privacy, especially after the famous Justice K.S. Puttaswamy vs Union of India judgement in 2017, wherein the Supreme Court ruled that the right to privacy was a fundamental right. Furthermore, companies and organisations (with much greater bargaining power) that use data made accessible before them are often able to get away with using the same without as much as making the rightful owners of the same (referred to as ‘Data Principals’) aware of the fact that their right to privacy is being breached. Hence, properly drafted legislation in the form of the Draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, made to protect the interests of the Data Principals and balance the inequality of power between the Data Principals and Data Fiduciaries (individuals or institutions processing and using personal data) by placing them both on an equal footing was definitely the need of the hour.
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