DPDP Bill will create punitive consequences for platforms exploiting Indians' data: MoS IT

New Delhi, Aug 3

The Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) bill is certainly a legislation that will create a deep lasting behavioural change and create high penalty punitive consequences for any or all platforms that misuse or exploit the personal data of any Indian citizen, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said on Thursday after the proposed law was introduced in Parliament amid protests

The highly-anticipated bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha by IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

Chandrasekhar said that the DPDP Bill introduced in Parliament is a very significant milestone in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of global standard cyber laws for India's $1 trillion digital economy goal and India’s Techade.

"For many years, it has been known that many platforms, companies or data fiduciaries have been collecting personal data of individual citizens, not just in India but all around the world and have been exploiting that personal data for their own business models, algorithms, and many other ways," he said in a video message.

This has been done without the awareness or the agreement of the person whose personal data it was. "Big and small technology companies have been essentially creating business models by misusing and exploiting digital personal data of citizens, which is something that this bill intends to address," the minister added.

He said that the bill addressed aspects that every legislation should achieve -- protecting citizens’ rights and creating a compliance-friendly regime for startups and the digital economy.

"This is certainly legislation that will create a deep lasting behavioural change and create punitive consequences, high-penalty punitive consequences for any or all platforms that misuse or exploit the personal data of any Indian citizen," the minister stressed.

The data protection bill specifies norms on management of personal data of residents in India and requires explicit consent from people whose data is collected and used. The DPDP bill also outlines practices for entities that collect personal data, how that data should be stored and processed to ensure there is no breach.