The Finance Ministry has suggested that provisions relating to data protection be excluded from the national e-commerce policy, on grounds that the issue is best handled by MeitY, reports Mint. The report cites a government official as saying that the draft data protection bill, drafted by MeitY, is not restricted to e-commerce companies but applies to every industry and sector. Moreover, according to the official, the policy should look at data from the point of view of ‘competition’ and should list provisions such that data is misused to influence prices and ensure the level playing field for all sellers. Issues with the draft e-Commerce policy when it came to data protection Among the goals of the e-commerce policy was to address the regulatory gaps from the Personal Data Protection Bill. It recognized data as a national asset and collective resource. It said that Indians have a sovereign right over their data and this right cannot be extended to non Indians. Why data provisions were being introduced in the e-commerce policy when the Personal Data Protection Bill is already in the works is a question raised by participants at MediaNama's discussion on the e-commerce policy as well. A number of other issues in the e-commerce policy such as cross-border flow of data, data localisation, and government control over data were also contested. Some issues raised during MediaNama's discussions on the Draft National E-Commerce Policy: 1. Jurisdiction, why undermine a consultation process? : Devika Agarwal of NASSCOM said introducing data data provisions…
