Ensure that data law protects individual’s privacy
Data is a national asset and is being heavily monetised by West. However, national security must be paramount. Cross-border flow of data should be allowed in a way that protects an individual citizen’s privacy.
While the government has extended the deadline for feedback from public with respect to the Draft Personal Data Protection Bill till the month end, a group of experts under the aegis of Cyber Security Research Centre (CSRC) at Punjab Engineering College (PEC), Sector 12, joined hands with Cyber Peace Foundation to debate the recommendations of Justice BN Srikrishna Committee on data protection from the perspective of national security.
Here are the key insights from experts:
As per the draft Data Protection Bill, on cross border flow of data, “Every data fiduciary (any entity processing personal data) shall ensure the storage, on a server or data centre located in India, of at least one serving copy of personal data to which this Act applies.” However, entities owning and processing the data can still mine it, thereby defeating the overarching goal of Data Protection Bill, which is to protect the our data. Data is a national asset and is being heavily monetised by West. However, national security must be paramount. Cross-border flow of data should be allowed in a way that protects an individual citizen’s privacy.
Dr. Divya Bansal, Prof. & Head CSRC
Individual privacy and trust needs protection. Users should be informed about the purpose of data processing by data judiciary and also alerted about any breach of privacy.
Amrita Choudhary, Director Advisor, Cyber Cafe Association of India (CCAOI) and Cyber Peace Foundation
Individual privacy and trust need protection. Users should be informed about the purpose of data processing by data judiciary. Besides, they should also alerted about privacy breaches. Experts from the Cyber Peace Foundation feel the socio-economic needs of a data protection regime must be realised.
Dinesh Bareja, COO of Open Security Alliance
Data should be protected by our own systems, government and organisations. It should not be protected by foreign companies. Data localisation will help the police, which often finds it difficult to access information from foreign operators.
Vineet Kumar, president of Cyber Peace Foundation Policy