India moving towards digital governance, strict data-protection law needed: Experts
A stringent data protection law is urgently needed in India to address the mounting concerns over privacy of citizens as the country is moving towards digital governance said experts, at a discussion on data protection. Chinmayi Arun, Executive Director, Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University, Delhi, said there needs to be a mechanism to deal with the misuse of citizen's data.
Data could get soiled with particular companies
The panel discussion was part of a series of talks on digital technologies and their impact on society, organized with an active involvement of former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran. "What could happen is that all this important data, particularly in the key sectors of education, healthcare, and so on could get soiled with particular companies," said Ananth Padmanabhan, a fellow at Carnegie India.
SC examining various aspects of Aadhaar
Safety of the Aadhaar database has been quite a concern in India. The Supreme Court is also examining issues relating to various aspects of Aadhaar. Supreme Court advocate Vrinda Bhandari asserted that a data protection law was the need of the hour. She added that there's a need to set up a regulator or some sort of adjudication mechanism, emphasizing the experts' point.
The debate is whether digital economy is good or bad
Justice N Srikrishna, who heads a committee tasked to frame new data protection norms for India, said: "We are in the stage of digital economy, digital footprints are everywhere. The digital footprints will identify you... Is it good, is it bad that is the debate." Meanwhile, UIDAI Chairman J Satyanarayana, asserted that the Aadhaar database is secured by design.
People have now started questioning
Bhandari noted that following the Cambridge Analytica episode, people are now questioning who has access to their data and what are their rights. "If it chooses to enter into contracts with unreliable third parties, that should not become the citizen's or the consumer's problem," she said. The event was hosted by India International Centre in collaboration with Niti Aayog and Centre for Policy Research.
Cambridge Analytica harvested Facebook user data to influence Presidential election
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