Protection For Unruly Data

Europe’s shown the data protection way with the GDRP, India intends to follow, but the road is tricky

- Arindam Mukherjee

OVER the last year or so, concerns over data security and privacy have heightened in India. It’s a crucial question for a country that lacks a comprehensive privacy law as well as a proper data protection policy. With the implementation of the stringent General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe from May this year, the importance of data protection has become an imperative for India, given that India is increasingly looking towards Europe to do business.

In this light, the recommendations of the Justice B.N. Sri Krishna Committee on data protection come at an important juncture. The committee, which has been deliberating over the issue of data privacy and protection for over a year, came out with a set of recommendations that have the potential to establish the foundation of a GDPR-like data privacy and protection policy in India.

“In the backdrop of Aadhaar, DNA profiling, the two roadmaps for artificial intelligence, the TRAI’s recommendations on privacy, data ownership in the telecom sector, the India Health Stack as well as international developments such as the CLOUD Act, the e-evidence directive and GDPR, the Bill and report are important developments in signalling to national and global communities India’s position on privacy and how it intends to go forward from the Puttaswamy Judgement (on data privacy),” says Elonnai Hickok, COO with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS).

The main recommendations of the panel include the explicit consent of an individual for the use of private data, the setting up of a regulator and, most crucially, giving Indian citizens the right to be forgotten or giving one the right to go completely off the radar.