Govt to launch unique personal data protection law

Identifying the inability of the current laws related to the personal data protection to prevent the misuse of the data, and the need for such a law to meet the requirements of the digital world which India is pursuing, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is planning to articulate a unique personal date protection law. As per the report, the ministry has sought the permission of the Prime Minister Office to articulate such a historic law. According to the report, if the ministry gets the assent of the PMO, it will form a committee. It is learned that in the committee, there will be positions for all relevant stakeholders directly or indirectly linked to the personal data protection and will be provision for hearing all opinions and suggestions.

Even though we have some laws such as the Reasonable Security Guidelines under Section 43A of the Information Technology Act which vaguely covers the personal date protection, there is no concrete law in our country which has enough potential to protect our privacy. India, which is one of the signatories of the UN’s International Convention on Civil and Political Rights which stipulates the protection of the individual privacy, is obliged to create provisions to protect the personal data of its citizens. Experts say that unless and until India articulates such a concrete law ensuring the protection of the personal data our country is unfit to go digital. The efficient initiatives such as Aadhaar might fail to see the desired result if the digital platform is not safe.

Vignesh

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