Roundtable on Data Integrity and Privacy
With the 10-member committee headed by former Justice B.N. Srikrishna being mandated to recommend principles for a new data protection bill, the time is ripe for online platforms, service providers and citizen stakeholders to discuss what the substantive elements of the new data protection law should look like.
Regulatory principles around data should be informed by the impetus for innovation, the responsibility to deliver social benefits and most importantly the users’ expectation of privacy. Increasingly, the nature and number of actors collecting and processing user data is becoming unclear. The new data protection framework must clarify the relationship between the user and apps/ mobile platforms that collect her data, but should do so while acknowledging the heterogenous nature of the Indian digital economy, comprising operating systems, platforms and devices of varying security and sophistication.
To kick-start this project, ORF hosted a roundtable chaired by Shri Baijayant Panda to hear from a diverse set of stakeholders to understand what direction the data privacy regime in India should take. The roundtable took place at the Viceroy, Claridges Hotel, 12, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road, New Delhi, Delhi 110011.
The roundtable broadly covered the following aspects –
- Role of user consent and choice
- Importance of cross border data flows
- Appropriate regulatory authority
- International best practices and relevance to the Indian context
- Reasonable restrictions
- Private-public collaboration
