WEB DESK
The government on Wednesday withdrew the Data Protection Bill from the Lok Sabha after a joint parliamentary committee suggested several changes to it.
The Bill, which aims to regulate how an individual’s data can be used by companies and the government, was introduced on December 11, 2019. It was referred to the Joint Committee of the Houses for examination and the report of the committee was presented to the Lok Sabha on December 16, 2021.
The Bill, withdrawn by IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, aimed to provide digital privacy to individuals relating to their personal data, specify the flow and usage of data, and create a relationship of trust between persons and entities processing the data.
The bill had been sent to the panel in 2019 after it faced vehement protests from the Opposition Congress and Trinamool Congress among others who said the data privacy law violated fundamental rights of citizens.
The Opposition parties said the law gave sweeping powers to the government to access personal data of individuals under opaque conditions, citing national security and other reasons.
The report of the joint parliamentary committee with its 93 recommendations amplified concerns about the central government’s powers to invade an individual’s right to privacy.
The chief concern is that the new legislation fails to provide adequate protection, for it does not stymie the government and its agencies from overriding an individual’s right of consent before processing his personal data.
India is one of the fastest-growing data-generating nations in the world with over 700 million Internet users and over 400 million smart phone users. Together, they generate over 150 exabytes of data annually.
One exabyte is one billion gigabytes (GB). Let us put that in context: some experts estimate that all the words ever spoken by mankind would be equal to just five exabytes.