Looking at ‘bigger umbrella’, Personal Data Protection Bill prone to embody non-personal knowledge

The Joint Parliamentary Committee on Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill of 2019 is prone to meet this month to formally undertake a decision to widen the ambit of the Bill to incorporate non-personal knowledge as effectively, sources in know of the event mentioned.
The subsequent assembly, prone to occur on October 20 beneath the Chairmanship of P P Chaudhary, will deliberate upon this proposal, sources mentioned, including that different adjustments to the proposed Bill akin to amendments to Section 91 (2), which to date says that the provisions of the PDP Bill wouldn’t apply to anonymised knowledge.
Following the adjustments, the brand new Bill is prone to be known as simply the Data Protection Bill of 2021 as an alternative of Personal Data Protection Bill, a supply within the know of the event instructed The Indian Express.
“The idea to include non-personal data is to have a bigger umbrella, which will act as sort of an architecture if any amendments are to be made in the future. The inclusion of provisions for non-personal data will mostly be done on the basis of the recommendations of the Ministry committee,” an official mentioned. Mails to the Parliamentary panel looking for particulars of the proposed adjustments remained unanswered.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has in September 2019 constituted a panel, chaired by Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, to deliberate upon and talk about numerous features of non-personal knowledge. In its report submitted in July 2020, the panel had prompt a data-sharing regulation to shift knowledge’s “economic benefits for citizens and communities in India” in addition to assist the federal government in coverage making and repair supply.

ExplainedAlmost 3 yrs within the readyThe Personal Data Protection Bill, first proposed by the federal government in 2018, has been pending for almost 3 years now. It has seen a number of adjustments to the unique draft drawn by retired Supreme Court decide Justice B N Srikrishna.

However, in sure classes akin to knowledge associated to nationwide safety or strategic pursuits akin to areas of presidency laboratories or analysis services, even when supplied in anonymised kind may be harmful. Similarly, even when the info is in regards to the well being of a neighborhood or a bunch of communities, although it could be in anonymised kind, it could actually nonetheless be harmful, the panel had mentioned.
“Possibilities of such harm are obviously much higher if the original personal data is of a sensitive nature. Therefore, the non-personal data arising from such sensitive personal data may be considered as sensitive non-personal data,” the panel had prompt.
The JPC might name trade specialists on non-personal knowledge for submissions and clarify the features earlier than taking a closing name, one official mentioned. “There are some concerns that there is no standard definition for non-personal data, or that who will be in charge of non-personal data and whether there will be a separate regulator. All these issues will be discussed in upcoming sittings,” the official mentioned.

The Personal Data Protection Bill, first proposed by the federal government in 2018, has been pending for shut to 3 years now. It has seen a number of adjustments to the unique draft drawn by retired Supreme Court decide Justice B N Srikrishna, who additionally mentioned that the revised Bill was “a blank cheque to the state”. The newest model of the invoice, in full distinction to earlier 2018 draft, says {that a} committee for choice of Data Protection Authority, will embody the Cabinet Secretary, the Law Secretary and the IT Secretary.