Is Data Protection Bill 2022 Guarantee of Open, Safe, Trusted, and Accountable Internet? Let's Analyze It

Digital transformation has put a remarkable impact on our life, whether businesses or our life style both have truly transformed. As we are becoming heavily dependent on technology likewise the significance of privacy and data protection is increasingly recognized. According to the United Nation, 128 out of 194 countries have legislation to ensure data protection and privacy. Germany is the first country to adopt data protection law in 1970. It was year 1969, when the German parliament introduced a statute to regulate the computerized personal information.

Today, every country has data protection law to deal with data subject's rights, duties of data controllers, supervisory authorities, remedies, liabilities and penalties, transfer of personal data to third parties etc. Data protection bill introduced in the Indian parliament in 2019 that later became Data Protection Act in 2021. This bill aims to develop a system thereby personal data can be protected and set condition to access by the public and private organizations. There were expansive rules on collection, storage, handling of personal data, outlines the punishments and compensation for breaches in Data Protection Bill 2021.

But there were some critical loopholesin Data Protection Bill 2021 like users' privacy, data security in cross-border data transfer, and transparency in data collection were not addressed, therefore the government withdrawn the bill on 3 August 2022 and promised to introduce a new legislation very soon. On 18 November 2022, the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology released Data Protection Bill 2022 to ensure transparency in data collection of 70 crore Indian smartphone users like how their data is being collected, and for what purpose it is being processed.

In addition, in this bill government also made a comprehensive legal framework to regulate the online space, separate legislation on data privacy,the Internet ecosystem, cybersecurity, telecom regulations, etc. Now the question arises, Is Data Protection Bill 2022 guarantee of open, safe, trusted, and accountable internet? This blog walks you through the significance of data protection bill 2022 and its pros and cons.

Significance of Data Protection Bill 2022

If you have no idea where is your data, who is accessing it and who in your organization isresponsible for it, then this data protection billlays stress on procedure and effective mechanisms to redress the grievances of complaints related to data. Therefore, it will be imperative for organizations to maintain an effective data inventory system to address the grievances related to customer data.

Data Protection Bill 2022 give specific rights to customers to access information about their personal data. According to this bill, each individual is entitled to receive a summary of the personal data that has been processed by the data fiduciary and with whom the personal data has been shared along with all categories.

Cyber Crime is one of the major issues of 21st century, organizations across the world have cyber security regulations to protect theprivacy of its customers.Third party activities are the biggest threat todata privacy and security. This new data protection bill proposes a hefty fine of Rs 250 crore, if organizations don't take reasonable safeguards to prevent personal data breach.

Most organizations retain data longer than they need to. The Data Protection Bill 2022 address this issue and specifies that businesses only need to retain the data when they need it. A data fiduciary must cease to retain personal data when there is no objective to retain it. This bill also provides exemption to businesses like banks wherein mandatory to retain data for six months.

Positive Aspects of Data Protection Bill 2022:

• Data Protection Bill 2022 gives power to ordinary citizens, this bill gives them rights to get complete information of their data like how and what data is collected, and how it will be processed.
• This bill specifies hefty penalty for non-compliance and relaxes rules on cross-border data flows.
• Through this bill tech giants like Facebook and Google will be more accountable to protect data of users.
• According to this bill, companies can transfer the personal data of users only to those countries specified by government. For example, if USA is country where government allows to transfer personal data of users this will enable tech companies transfer user data and manage their operations better.
• According to the Data Protection Bill 2022, data localization is not mandatorythat ensures parity between players in the market and reduces the compliance cost significantly.
• This bill makes compliance a lot easier for startups that significantly proves effective to promote startup culture and ease of doing business.

Negative Aspects of Data Protection Bill 2022:

• Data Protection Bill 2022 not specifies difference between personal data and "sensitive personal data". It simply identifies personal data as any data. Significantly, "sensitivepersonal data" are some types of data that requires a stricter and more stringent type of protection.
• This bill gives sweeping power to bureaucracy and government agencies when it comes to surveillance, intercepting, monitoring, and decrypting any information. Here could have been some limitationsand judicial permission was necessary for this level of surveillance.

Data is an asset for every country and business, it is a positive sign that India realized its significance.This bill not only protects digital rights of common citizen of the countrybut also paves the way for the government and industry to work together and fortify the law in the context of privacy, innovation and tech leadership. Overall, Data Protection Bill 2022 is the perfect balance between the need of time and the Supreme Court's ruling on privacy as a fundamental right.

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