The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, was introduced in Parliament in December 2019, and was referred to a 30-member Joint Parliamentary Committee for review. The Bill is the first legislation that focusses on privacy of citizens, and could potentially result in significant overhaul of digital businesses and companies. The Committee is expected to submit its report to the Parliament before the Budget Session concludes on April 3, 2020. Earlier this month, MediaNama held discussions in Delhi and Bangalore on the main aspects and impact of the Bill with a wide set of stakeholders. The discussions were held with support from Facebook, Google, and STAR India in Delhi, and with support Facebook and Google in Bangalore. The discussions were held under Chatham House Rule, so quotes have not been attributed. Quotes are not verbatim and have been edited for clarity and brevity. Read our full coverage of the discussions here: #NAMA India’s Data Protection Law – January 2020. The following is Part II of our notes from the session on user rights and data fiduciaries, read Part I here. Does the Bill do enough for user rights? Does it live up to Puttaswamy standards? It’s a good thing that right to erasure is there, the rest maintains the status quo as the 2018 Bill, said a speaker. It’s commendable that most rights under the Bill are the same as the ones in GDPR. It boils down to how regulations around the functions of the Adjudicating Officer would work, a speaker said.…
