Citizens’ Draft Privacy Bill Seeks To Revolutionise Data Collection, Storage In India

A draft privacy bill proposes sweeping reforms to the way personal data is collected, processed and stored in India.

The bill prescribes punishment for offenses related to interception of communication, surveillance, abetment, repeat offenders and offenses by companies.

The bill, according to information on the website, is based on seven principles, foremost of which is the importance of individual rights. The others are:

• A data protection law must be based on privacy principles and guidelines discussed in the report of Justice AP Shah Committee of Experts; the Supreme Court judgement on Right to Privacy and European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation.
• A strong privacy commission must be created to enforce privacy principles. The commission should be granted wide powers of investigation, adjudication, rule-making and enforcement. The privacy commission must have jurisdiction over the government as well as private bodies.
• The government must respect user privacy. The government cannot deny essential services to citizens if they choose not to share data with it. The draft says government withholding services on pretext of collection of information effectively amounts to “extortion of consent”.
• A complete privacy code must come with surveillance reform. Even when individual interception and surveillance is carried out this should be severely limited in substance and practiced through procedural safeguards.
• Strengthen the Right To Information Act and exempt information commissioners from interference or control by the privacy commissioner
• International protection and harmonisation is a must to protect the open internet. The group suggests the law must have extraterritorial effect and apply to web services and platforms which are accessible in India and gather personal data of Indians.

The bill takes inspiration from the Privacy (Protection) Bill, 2013 which was drafted over a series of roundtable discussions and inputs conducted by the Centre for Internet and Society, Bengaluru.

The individuals who were involved in the drafting of the model law are Raman Jit Singh Cheema, Apar Gupta, Gautam Bhatia, Kritika Bhardwaj, Maansi Verma, Naman N Aggarwal, Praavita Kashyap, Prasanna S, Ujjwala Uppaluri, Vrinda Bhandari.