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After nearly a year of deliberations, the high-level committee headed by Justice B N Srikrishna on data protection framework for India has concluded its discussions and is expected to submit its report to the government by first week of August, two members of the panel said, on condition of anonymity. On Wednesday, the 10-member committee, which was constituted on July 31, 2017, met here in a discussion that lasted for over two-and-a-half hours.
Given that a slew of legislation in the country have provisions for storage and use of personally sensitive data that will have an impact due to the proposed data protection law, the member said that nearly 70 Acts, including the Aadhaar Act and the Right to Information Act will require amendments. According to the person, discussions in the meeting on Aadhaar, and the treatment of the biometric identity system, went on for nearly an hour.
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The committee, in its Wednesday meeting, also deliberated upon the July 16 recommendations put forth by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on data protection and privacy for the telecom sectors. Another member pointed out that most of the recommendations by TRAI were agreed upon by the panel and there was a consensus about including them in the report. The telecom sector regulator had said that the government must notify policy framework to regulate devices, operating systems, browsers and applications, while proposing that users be granted the right to choice, consent and — equally important — to be forgotten, to safeguard privacy. Apart from these issues, TRAI had also recommended allowing consumers to use their data.
On the further course of action, once the committee submits its report, the government may decide to amend it before putting it out in the public domain for stakeholder consultations.
