Security News > 2022 > August > India scraps data protection law in favor of better law coming … sometime

The government of India has scrapped the Personal Data Protection Bill it's worked on for three years, and announced it will - eventually - unveil a superior bill.

The bill, proposed in 2019, would have enabled the government to gather user data from companies while regulating cross-border data flows.

JCP report on Personal Data protection bill had identified many issues that were relevant but beyond the scope of a modern Digital Privacy law.

Asia Internet Coalition - a trade org whose members include Apple, Facebook, Google, Amazon, Twitter and more - sent a letter [PDF] to lawmakers last January calling the data localization requirements in the bill "Onerous" and asserting cross-border transfer decisions should be free of political interference.

Anushka Jain, a lawyer for New Delhi-based Internet Freedom Foundation told The Reg in May that digital liberties organizations worried the bill exempted India's government and local authorities from data protection requirements, and thereby could facilitate unchecked surveillance.

"The statement notes work on a 'comprehensive legal framework'. This is attributed to the JPC report on the Data Protection Bill, 2019. This is incorrect as the remit of the JPC was limited to the Data Protection Bill, for which it did not recommend a withdrawal," said Gupta.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/08/04/india_scraps_data_protection_law/