Hrishabh Daga of O. P. Jindal Global Law School
Personal Data refers to the information that allows for better identification by setting one person apart from another. This information is processed by numerous companies and even the government for a variety of purposes, including conducting business, targeting advertisements, and law enforcement, to mention a few.
An uncontrolled & unregulated processing of this data may have a detrimental effect on an individual's privacy and deprive him of an essential right of the 21st century. India did not have a separate data protection law until recently. The sole law, the Information Technology Act of 20001, did not specifically address the safeguarding of individuals' personal information. Following this in 2017, the first committee was set to examine and come up with a statute and based on the recommendations of this committee, The Personal Data Protection Bill of 2019 was introduced, but due to its limitations was withdrawn in 2022.
The Government of India, techno companies and the representatives of the civil society after spending years on the negotiation table finally presented the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill of 2023 to the Parliament. The main aim of the statute was to bring forward a written set of guidelines for the citizens of India on how the personal data of Indians would be collected and used by organisations including the government.
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