Consent, transparency key in DPDP talks

THE MEETING HAD FEWER THAN 50 PARTICIPANTS AND FOCUSED ON BANKING, FINTECH, AND HEALTH CARE

- Aditi Agrawal

NEW DELHI: Companies are not obligated to use government-issued identity documents to obtain parental or guardian consent for processing children's data under the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act or the proposed rules, senior officials from the ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity) told stakeholders during a Mumbai consultation on Monday.

IT secretary S Krishnan led the consultation, joined by additional secretary and UIDAI CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar, and head of Meity's cyber laws division Deepak Goel. Unlike the New Delhi consultation on January 14 that drew more than 300 attendees, Monday's meeting focused on banking, fintech, and health care, with fewer than 50 participants including representatives from HDFC Bank, Johnson & Johnson, Sony, and Lionsgate.

The draft DPDP Rules, released for public consultation on January 3, are crucial for implementing the DPDP Act, which was notified in August 2023 but remains to be enforced.