India’s data protection Bill

• Vaid's ICS, Lucknow
• 20, Dec 2021

Why in news?

the Joint Committee on the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, headed by BJP MP P.P. Chaudhary, has  recently presented its final report on the upcoming bill in both Houses of Parliament on 16 December.

Key recommendations:

1. Remove the word ‘personal’ from the existing title of ‘Personal Data Protection Bill’. This is intended to reflect that the bill, in order to better ensure privacy, will also be dealing with non-personal data, such as personal data that has been anonymised.
2. Amend the section restricting the transfer of personal data outside India to say “sensitive personal data shall not be shared with any foreign government or agency unless such sharing is approved by the central government.
3. No social media platform be allowed to operate in India unless its parent company, which controls the technology powering its services, sets up an office in the country.
4. It proposes a separate regulatory body to be set up to regulate the media.
5. Jail term of up to 3 years, fine of Rs 2 lakh or both if de-identified data is re-identified by any person.
6. The word ‘personal’ ought to be dropped from the name of the Bill.
7. Central government may exempt any government agency from the legislation only under exceptional circumstances

FACTS FOR PRELIMS:

Card tokenization:

Tokenization will replace card details with a code, called a “token,” which will be specifically for the card, the token requestor and the device being used to pay. Instead of the card’s details, the token will act as the card at point of sale (POS) terminals and quick response (QR) code payment systems.

The goal of the process is to improve the safety and security of payments.

Context:

The Reserve Bank of India’s plans to move towards card tokenization is likely to hit a wide range of companies from major e-commerce firms and food delivery firms to lenders, while increasing the use of cash.

• RBI issued guidelines in March 2020 saying that merchants will not be allowed to save card information on their websites to boost data security.
• It issued fresh guidelines in September 2021 giving companies until the end of the year to comply with the regulations and offering them the option to tokenize.

Bhutan’s top civilian award for Modi:

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been conferred Bhutan’s highest civilian award, ‘Order of the Druk Gyalpo’.
• The award was conferred by the King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, in recognition of Modi’s contribution to India-Bhutan relations and his services to Bhutan and its people.
• Modi is the first foreign head of government to receive the award.