Union Cabinet approves Personal Data Protection Bill | Fusion - WeRIndia

The Union Cabinet headed by PM Modi yesterday approved the Personal Data Protection Bill.

The Bill was first finalized by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology after which it was sent to the approval of the Cabinet.

It is a framework to handle the personal data including its processing by public and private entities.

Here are some important things to know about Personal Data Protection Bill:

• The Bill lays framework guidelines related to personal data including the collection, storage and processing, consent of individuals for this, penalties and compensation, code of conduct and an enforcement model.
• The data is categorized into three groups – critical, sensitive and general.
• Sensitive data include financial, health, biometrics, sexual orientation, transgender status, religious or political beliefs and affiliation. This data can be stored only in India. Yet, it can be processed outside India with explicit consent.
• Critical data would be defined by the government from time to time. This needs to be stored and process only in India.
• The data that is non-critical and non-sensitive is categorized as general. There are no restrictions on the storage and processing of this data.
• In the event of data breach or violations of the law, the companies will have to pay heavy fines.
• Last week IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that India would not compromise on data sovereignty. He added that India would maintain its data sovereignty. India is producing a lot of data, and data sovereignty would not be negotiable. For this, the Bill was approved which provides robust and personal data protection.
• This Bill is intended to protect the data of all individuals. In addition to that, it also will regulate the collection and usage of the data by government and private companies. It even regulates the transfer and disclosure of personal data.
• The Bill came after a huge controversy of WhatsApp issue where Pegasus spyware intruded mobile phone users. A total of 1400 users had been affected by the spyware and out of them, 121 were Indian journalists.
• In this context, the opposition parties inquired whether the government had any dealings with the company to spy on the journalists. They also sought a reply from the government on this.

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