Consumer Advocator CUTS Says Draft Data Protection Bill Gives Unrestrained Power To Govt

The draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill is now open for comments from industry stakeholders and consumer advocacy body CUTS claims that the draft weakens the intent of consumer data protection.

According to a PTI report, the Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS) International has stated that the draft skipped the clause of ‘Right to Privacy’ in its preamble. Thereby, the Bill will provide unrestrained powers to the government since the data protection board will likely be directly in control of the government.

“Moving away from its previous version, the bill skips mention of the fundamental right to privacy in its preamble. It narrows the scope of the law from data protection to digital personal data protection excluding non-personal data, which is rather desirable.” CUTS said in a statement. 

It added that there is no segregation of sensitive and non-sensitive personal data, thereby painting all personal data with the same regulatory brush.

CUTS International’s secretary general Pradeep Mehta stated that the previous (2018) draft mentioned the right to privacy as making personal data protection an essential facet of informational privacy.     

“The [current] Bill provides a broad scope and unrestrained powers to the government to prescribe on critical issues at a later date. Such powers, if not carefully and judicially used, can do more harm than good,” he said.

However, CUTS appreciated several initiatives such as allowing the transfer of personal data outside India and the evolution of ‘data fiduciaries’. But the consumer advocacy body has also pointed out that there is still ‘significant unreasonable discretion’.

Besides CUTS, the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) also pointed out the dilution of the regulatory body. It stated that the now-proposed Data Protection Board lacks autonomy and independence. Several legal experts have also stated that the latest version – the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill is a shorter, simpler document and may need refining before the Bill is adopted.

Key Takeaways From The Draft Digital Data Protection Bill

The new draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill is finally out and has narrowed the scope of ‘data’ by considering only personal and digital data in India.

The draft has provided several clauses including the imposition of fines, the set of cross-border data flow, the reduction in compliance burden, the government’s liability in the event of data breaches and more.

Yet, in consensus, most experts, critics and industry bodies have called the Bill ‘vague’, since several parts of the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill carry the phrase ‘as may be prescribed’.