Comments on the (Draft) Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018

Abstract

India is currently in the process of adopting a new legal framework to govern the protection of personal data. This paper contains our comments on the draft Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 that was prepared by Committee of Experts headed by Justice B.N. Srikrishna. We note that the draft Bill offers a fairly comprehensive set of data protection principles and rights to data subjects, particularly in relation to processing by private entities. However, there are several key areas where the positions adopted by the Bill need to be revisited. This includes provisions relating to the structure and design of the Data Protection Authority, role of adjudication officers, cross border transfer of data and scope of exemptions under the law, particularly in relation to government agencies.

Keywords: Data Protection, Privacy, Localisation, Suveillance, India, Srikrishna Committee