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The Centre will follow a graded approach in the way the data protection Bill– which is on the verge of becoming law – will be implemented for different entities. The government will implement the law first for big tech companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple, and offer a longer transition timeline for smaller entities and start-ups, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar told The Indian Express.
The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023 was passed in Rajya Sabhaon Wednesday and will become law once it receives the President’s assent. This is India’s second attempt at framing a privacy legislation, and comes after at least three previous iterations of a data protection law have been considered, and shelved, by the government.
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The Bill, however, does not offer any implementation timelines on when its provisions will be operationalised for entities that collect users’ personal data. “Big tech companies will certainly have to comply with the law first, followed by start-ups and less digitised entities such as MSMEs,” Chandrasekhar told this paper. The timelines will be decided after consultation with the industry, he said.
He said that the timelines will be decided in a way that they do not disrupt ongoing operations of businesses.
The European Union’s privacy law, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) , had allowed entities a time period of two years before it was to start applying to them. The GDPR was approved by the European Parliament in 2016 and came into effect in 2018. Chandrasekhar said that India’s timeline would be much shorter than two years.
“We expect the industry to ask for a long time period, but the government will negotiate with them. GDPR was designed when the world’s knowledge about privacy laws was low, but that is not the case today. So, it is unlikely that we will allow the industry a two year transition window,” he said.
Calling the passing of the Bill in both houses of Parliament a “big milestone,” Chandrasekhar said that the imminent data protection law shows a “coming of age” of India’s digital space. “It is a future-ready law that has been prepared with extensive consultation with the industry,” he added.
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The Bill has retained the contents of the original version of the legislation proposed last November, including those that were red-flagged by privacy experts, such as exemptions for the Centre. In its new avatar, the proposed law has also accorded virtual censorship powers to the Centre.
Soumyarendra Barik is Special Correspondent with The Indian Express and reports on the intersection of technology, policy and society. With over five years of newsroom experience, he has reported on issues of gig workers’ rights, privacy, India’s prevalent digital divide and a range of other policy interventions that impact big tech companies. He once also tailed a food delivery worker for over 12 hours to quantify the amount of money they make, and the pain they go through while doing so. In his free time, he likes to nerd about watches, Formula 1 and football. ... Read More
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