India’s draft personal data protection 2019 proposes strict provisions for the processing and use of personal data. The bill also proposes stronger provisions in respect of users seeking deletion of their information from commercial and social platforms.
The bill also provides that anyone collecting personal data shall at the time of collection mention the purpose of collecting the same, the categories of a user’s data, the right of the user to withdraw consent for further use of the data. The rules proposed would also apply to any organisation that has user data including, ‘search engines’ in India.
The bill also states that a data fiduciary must take all steps to ensure that personal data that is processed is complete, accurate, not misleading, updated and must have some regard to the purposes for which processing was done.
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In addition to the proposals for collection and processing of data, the bill also allows the right to erasure and a provision of the right to be forgotten in the draft submitted by a panel led by retired Supreme Court judge Justice BN Srikrishna.
The bill allows individuals to approach the adjudicating officer under the independent regulator (the Data Protection Authority) to restrict or delete personal content that meets certain predefined criteria.
Justice BN Srikrishna-led committee had submitted a draft of the bill last year to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY). The purpose was to create a powerful data protection law in India. The draft is made final after a year of consultations with various stakeholders. The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 is important due to the urgent need to regulate user’s data, be it for online platforms, apps, social networks or even online services including by the government.
For any clarifications/feedback on the topic, please contact the writer at sweta.dugar@cleartax.in
I am a Chartered Accountant by profession. I specialise in personal taxes and corporate income tax matters. I am an avid reader and track developments in financial markets, economy and other market developments.
