The Personal Data Protection Bill was tabled by the Centre in the Lok Sabha in December 2019 and was immediately referred to a joint parliamentary committee. The panel took two years to complete its report, which made the recommendation that the Bill’s provision allowing the Centre to exempt the processing of personal data by a government agency from the application of any or all provisions have necessary safeguards to ensure against misuse.
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In the end, the bill was retracted in August 2022. The government started public discussions and issued the draft of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill three months later. The draught had generated controversy because it excused organisations that had received notification from the Centre from informing individuals of the reason behind the collection and processing of their data.
The fact that the most recent draught allegedly does not grant government entities a general exemption is comforting for the public, even if a severe penalty of as much as Rs 250 crore has been suggested for violations of the Bill’s rules.
It is essential to secure individuals’ privacy and personal information. The government has launched a thorough investigation in response to the CoWIN issue, in which there was an alleged breach of data of Covid vaccination recipients.
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The new Bill should place a high premium on ensuring data security. With few exceptions, a crucial transparency requirement forbids public and commercial organisations from gathering and exploiting individuals’ personal data without their consent. The proposed law will be put to the test in terms of how well it strikes a balance between individuals’ rights to have their personal data protected and the necessity to process such data for legal purposes.
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