The government can also ask data processors to provide data for formulation of evidence-based policies for its own use.
BS
: Commenting on the Personal Data Protection Bill, industry
bodies National Association of Software and Services Companies
(Nasscom) and Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) said
non-personal data and lack of clarity around deciding significant
data fiduciaries were among the main concerns of member companies.
Nasscom
is the industry body representing the $180-billion information
technology and business process management (IT-BPM) industry, while
the IAMAI represents a host of digital and online businesses,
including the India arms of Google, Facebook, Apple, and also
e-commerce firms like Flipkart, Amazon, Uber and so on.
The
Bill, referred to a Joint Special Committee on Wednesday, says that
the central government, in consultation with the Data
Protection Authority, can direct any data fiduciary or data
processor to provide non-personal data to enable better targeting of
delivery of services. The government can also ask data processors to
provide data for formulation of evidence-based policies for its own
use.
“This
(asking for non-personal data as prescribed), along with the fact
that insights derived from personal data is also considered as
personal data, raises issues of undermining Intellectual Property
Rights of businesses engaged in data services. Many data firms offer
their services for free, with the data as the only intellectual asset
for their businesses. Claiming this data would rob many such
businesses of their critical asset,” said IAMAI.
It
said that the government also offers many services in competition to
private service providers, and this provision of the Bill risks
creating a non-level playing field for private businesses.
Nasscom,
which held a consultation with its members on Thursday, said the
non-personal data provision had no safeguards for protecting IP
rights, or other business-sensitive non-personal data.
On
Thursday, responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha on what data
sets constitute non-personal data, and whether the government would
respect the protection to proprietorial data and commercial data as
protected by the WTO and the Intellectual Property Rights, the
minister of state for electronics and IT, Sanjay Dhotre, said these
topics were being deliberated upon by a committee of experts set up
under the chairmanship of Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan.
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