India will have data protection bill to be ready by December 2017

Privacy in India is a great step by the government. In an era of Digitalization, it was a need of an hour to implement this policy. Indian market is most vulnerable country towards data breaching & cyber security. Recently we have seen major cases ruling the cyber security & data breaching in India. Due to immense migration towards technology utilization this landmark ruling on privacy by Supreme Court will give a control over user data

Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice, Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a press conference on Supreme Court's ruling holding privacy as a Fundamental Right and the internet firms such as Google, Facebook, Uber, OLA and along with the country’s young start-up industrythat had access to user data needed to respect the law of the land.

He, however, did not give details on the issue and what would happen if these companies were misused data.

There have been reports, about the data theft and misuse by which user details have been sold at a premium pricing. Also, in the case of mobile applications, users have to accept the terms and conditions of various apps such as access to the social media, camera, contacts list, location and messages.

When a question raised there had been instances of banks giving out customer information, the minister said no public sector bank had done that and if any private bank was found to do it, it would have to face the consequences. Secondly, it also been reported that the service providing companies of Telecom, e-commerce and payment bank companies possess various category of database, few start-up /technology companies they structure those database by using augmenting reality (AI) and predictive analysis for effective usage and one can also get data from these companies.

With the recent constituted a 10-member committee by the Government, headed by former justice B N Srikrishna Supreme Court to deliberate on a data protection framework for the country. According to the source, depending on the nature of the report, the government will take a call if there is a need for a separate law on data protection or the IT Act is enough. Sources further said the government, to demonstrate that it was serious about the matter, had asked smartphone players to share details about their security architecture. The government is also probing with certain companies for sending user data to a remote server.

The government has also decided to strengthen the cyber laws of the country and TRAI has also come out with the consultation paper on privacy, security and ownership of data in the telecom sector. Currently, there are no guidelines on the use of data by third parties and who owns the data. The Srikrishna committee will make suggestions on principles of data protection and must be outlined by the data protection framework.

Prasad said the court has outlined that there has to be a balance between the right to privacy and the need of sovereignty, investigation and distribution of welfare to the poor. Also, the needs of India’s digital industry, which has the potential of becoming a trillion-dollar economy, have to be considered while acknowledging the establishment of privacy as a fundamental right, he pointed out.

Finally, the committee formed by Justice Srikrishna is expected to bring a rightful policy on the data security in India.