India clears Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023

The newly introduced Digital Personal Data Protection Bill has retained the contents of the original version of the legislation proposed last November, including those that were red-flagged by privacy experts. The passage of the Bill took a little over an hour. The Lok Sabha had cleared the Bill on Monday. The Bill will become law once it receives the President’s assent.

The Bill aims to ensure that data collection, sharing, and storage practices adhere to strict standards, keeping individuals' privacy intact. Whereas, the privacy experts have red-flagged, such as exemptions for the Centre. In its new avatar, the proposed law has also accorded virtual censorship powers to the Centre.

The DPDP Bill, 2023 gives the government powers to exempt state agencies from the law and gives users the right to correct or erase their personal data. Whereas, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Deputy minister for information technology, said that the law will protect the rights of all citizens, allow the innovation economy to expand, and permit the government legitimate access in the case of national security or health emergencies. Privacy in our scheme of things is not absolute. There are always reasonable restrictions in privacy as there are in freedom of expression.

The new legislation comes after India withdrew a 2019 privacy bill that had alarmed tech companies like Facebook and Google with its proposals for stringent restrictions on cross-border data flows.

The law proposes penalties of up to 2.5 billion rupees ($30m) for violations and non-compliance. However, it has drawn criticism from opposition lawmakers and rights groups over the scope of exemptions, including weakening the landmark Right To Information law — passed in 2005 — that allows citizens to seek data from public officers, such as salaries of state employees.

Several opposition lawmakers and digital experts say the legislation would allow the government and its agencies to access user data from companies and personal data of individuals without their consent as well as collect private data in a country where digital freedom have been shrinking on every passing day.