It is unlikely that non-personal data protecting an individual’s identity will become part of an upcoming data protection law that is currently being finalized by the Ministry of Electronics and Information. technology (MeitY), according to a report.
According to Hindustan Times, an official said that the Center is clear that the data protection law should not hinder the growth of the Indian economy.
A person familiar with the matter further said that the law was made for personal data and “is unlikely to include references to non-personal data”.
The official also said that the bill should be revised in the post-Covid period. He reportedly said that the central government is examining and studying all the provisions relating to the law.
non-personal data
According to the Personal Data Protection Bill (PDP), 2019, non-personal data is defined as data that is not personal or data that does not contain any personally identifying information.
The PDP Bill defines personal data as information about characteristics, qualities or identifying characteristics of a person that can be used to identify them.
Non-personal data can be that which has never been linked to a natural person or data that was once personal, but has been anonymized through the use of certain techniques to ensure that the individuals to whom the data relates are cannot be recognized.
For example, while the order details of a food delivery service will include a person’s name, age, gender and other contact information, it will become non-personal data once identifiers such as name and contact information are removed.
Non-personal data is divided by government committee into three categories – public non-personal data, communal non-personal data and private non-personal data.
On 11 December 2019, the then Union Minister of Electronics and Information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad introduced the bill in Rajya Sabha. On the same day, it was referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC).
Despite the fact that the 2019 bill focused solely on personal data, it mentioned non-personal data and its addition was recommended by the JPC.
However, the committee presented its findings in December last year, and the administration has been reviewing them since then. Several members of parliament spoke out against the final text, claiming that it gave “unbridled” exemptions to the government, a source of concern.
At the time, the panel advocated broadening the scope of the planned data protection legislation to include both personal and non-personal data, as well as the establishment of “a single governance and regulatory authority”, stricter measures for social media platforms. Regulation, a statutory establishment as well as a Media Regulatory Authority on the lines of the Press Council of India.
The panel said: “The Committee, therefore, recommends that since the Data Protection Authority shall handle both personal and non-personal data, any further policy/legal framework on non-personal data should be made part of the same Act rather than any Could be a different law.”
However, most stakeholders informed the parliamentary committee that non-personal data should be kept out of the purview of the law.
According to reports, now the draft law is likely to be introduced during the monsoon session of the House.
But as recently reported, an insider reportedly said that the Center may have decided that it is more important to defend the Supreme Court’s declaration of a fundamental right to privacy rather than adding non-personal data. , which would lead to uncertainty.
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