Data protection Bill arms Centre with exemption powers; tech firms worried

It may possibly be referred to a joint select committee subsequently.

The Personal Data Protection Bill, which was cleared by the Cabinet last week, gives the Centre powers to exempt any agency from the provisions of the legislation. The Draft Bill was circulated to Lok Sabha members on Tuesday, and is scheduled to be tabled in Parliament on Wednesday. It may possibly be referred to a joint select committee subsequently.

The exemption clauses in the Bill, reviewed by Business Standard, have left large technology companies and digital commerce firms worried about continuing their business in the country.

The Bill states that the central government can decide in the interest of “sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order” or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to certain conditions, and direct that “all or any of the provisions” of the Personal Data Protection Bill would not apply to “any agency of the Government”.

Pointing out that the Bill is very different from the first Draft under Justice B N Srikrishna committee, experts called the exemptions to government departments “overarching”. The first Draft, that was submitted to the government earlier, had disallowed processing of personal data in the interest of state security “unless it is authorised pursuant to a law, and is in accordance with the procedure established by such law, made by Parliament and is necessary for, and proportionate to, such interests being achieved”.

Apar Gupta, executive director at Internet Freedom Foundation, argued that the current Bill doesn’t deal with any kind of surveillance reform, which could include CCTV monitoring, social media monitoring, etc.

“It is not at all contemplated considering consent is a precondition to personal data collection," Gupta said.

Businesses unhappy

Digital commerce firms fear a major impact on business if the draft Data Protection Bill is passed in the current form. They fear plenty of hurdles in not only their day to day operations but also vis-à-vis their business models.

This could even hit the investment cycles for the coming year, according to industry representatives. “This is going to impact the way we work and our business models. This is a myopic way of looking at data protection. … Changing the way we work almost on a yearly basis is next to impossible. Spends on processing and handling data would sky-rocket. Many companies including ours would have to rethink investment plans,” said a senior vice president of a multinational digital commerce firm.