Around the time the Supreme Court held privacy to be a Âfundamental right in 2017, the government had formed a committee of experts headed by Justice B.N. Srikrishna to produce the framework for a law to address the question of who can access and benefit from the data of Indian Âcitizens and under what conditions. It was on the basis of its report submitted on July 27, 2018, that the government Âintroduced the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019. Excerpts from an interview with Siddhartha Mishra:
How do you view the changes from your original white paper to the final bill?
The government has taken away safeguards suggested for access of data by Âgovernment departments without the consent of the data Âprincipal (person to whom the data relates). The government by an executive order can say the data Âprotection law cannot apply to a certain department. It means they just have to pass an order to take away all my data without my consent. This is dangerous, and will lead to an Orwellian state. They have also said the Âgovernment may ask for data from all data Âintermediaries like Facebook and WhatsApp. It바카라™s like you have a joker in hand and you can make it do anything as you determine at any point in time. Also, we suggested that the data Âprotection authority should be headed by an independent person and comprise civil Âsociety leaders as well as Âgovernment nominees. Now it will be dominated by the latter, so the data protection authority will act in Âaccordance with what the government wants.
Can the government take our data without our consent?
They can access the data of every citizen in the interest of national security and so on. They can also pass an order saying it is necessary to Âexempt, say the PMO, some CM바카라™s office or all the government offices, from giving any data바카라”in the interest of Ânational security.
What does it mean for Âanonymity on social media?
It is at risk as the government may declare a platform as a significant data fiduciary for the purpose of implementing another policy or function. Then they can acquire all the data without the consent of the persons whose data they are collecting. Tomorrow they can pass an order saying Facebook has to give them all the data as they have to Âimplement some policy.
Why so much secrecy around the final bill?
For 18 months after submission of our report, we had public interactions in every major city. Some government babus must have ganged up and decided what is good for the country, and that is the end of the debate. I바카라™m angry because when they want to do it this way, why did they waste my time over it!
