Data Protection Bill passed by Rajya Sabha as Opposition stages walkout

Introducing the Bill in Rajya Sabha, I&T Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said: “We received inputs from 48 organisations and 39 ministries and a total of 24,000 comments on the Bill. For the first time, citizens of the country who have been using digital services have been given rights and organisations that have been mining data have been given obligations.’’

Vaishnaw said that the bill has been centred on broad principles including legality (a person’s data cannot be used for any other purpose than the one intended), principle of purpose, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation (in which the data company must delete the data after its stated use has been completed), and accountability.

He further said that four rights had been inscribed in the Bill including the right to access information, right to correct data or erasure, right to grievance redressal and right to nominate (in case of death). He further pointed out that an independent data protection board will be set up, which will fall under the jurisdiction of the telecom disputes tribunal and in case of appeal, the Supreme Court could also be approached.

Calling the Bill a landmark piece of legislation in Independent India, BJD MP Amar Patnaik raised some concerns. “I couldn’t find the word ‘privacy’’ in the Bill nor could I find the word ‘compensation’’. And yet these words were central in the Puttaswamy judgment.

YSRCP’s S Niranjan Reddy, while supporting the Bill, asked the minister to look into the matter of exemptions to start-ups. said: “There is a danger of a large data company setting up data mining start-ups to use this data for purposes other than what has been stated,’’ he said.