What India’s draft digital privacy law says — and how it compares with data protection laws elsewhere

Source: The post is based on the article “What India’s draft digital privacy law says — and how it compares with data protection laws elsewhere” published in Indian Express on 20th November 2022.

What is the News?

The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) has recently released the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022.

What is the Draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022?

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What are the data protection laws in other countries?

According to UNCTAD, an estimated 137 out of 194 countries have put in place legislation to secure the protection of data and privacy with Africa and Asia showing 61% (33 countries out of 54) and 57% adoption respectively. Some of these are: 

EU Model: The GDPR focuses on a comprehensive data protection law for the processing of personal data. 

It has been criticized for being excessively stringent and imposing many obligations on organizations processing data but it is the template for most of the legislation drafted around the world.

– Note: In the EU, the right to privacy is enshrined as a fundamental right that seeks to protect an individual’s dignity and his/her right over the data s/he generates. 

US Model: Privacy protection is largely defined as “liberty protection” focused on the protection of the individual’s personal space from the government. It is viewed as being somewhat narrow in focus because it enables the collection of personal information as long as the individual is informed of such collection and use. 

– The US template has been viewed as inadequate in key respects of regulation. This is because there is no comprehensive set of privacy rights or principles in the US like that of the EU’s GDPR. Instead, there is limited sector-specific regulation.

Chinese Model: China’s Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) gives Chinese data principals new rights as it seeks to prevent the misuse of personal data. 

– China’s Data Security Law(DSL) issued in 2021 requires business data to be categorized by levels of importance and puts new restrictions on cross-border transfers.

– These regulations will have a significant impact on how companies collect, store, use and transfer data but are essentially focused on giving the government overreaching powers to collect data as well as to regulate private companies that collect and process information.