The Indian government has introduced the draft of the Digital Personal Data Bill, 2022. The aim of this Act is to provide regulation around digital personal data. It recognizes both the right of individuals to protect their personal data and the need to process personal data for lawful purposes. The new Digital Personal Data Bill, 2022.
The Union Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said, "Seeking your views on draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022."
The previous Data Protection Bill was revoked earlier this year, during the parliamentary Monsoon Session. Now the ministry has renamed it to Personal Data Protection Bill, which emphasizes solely on laws around user data.
Some of the most notable inclusions in this draft is revolves around social media and other tech companies. The Digital Personal Data Bill states that the entity that collects data must cease to retain personal data, or remove the means by which the personal data can be associated with particular Data Principals, as soon as it is reasonable to assume that the primary purpose has been satisfied.
It also states that the data of the user should not be retained if it is not necessary for legal or business purposes.
The new Personal Data Protection bill also gives the owner of biometric data complete authority. Even if an employer needs an employee's biometric data to mark attendance, they will explicitly need consent from the employee.
The new Personal Data Protection Bill will affect KYC data. A ban needs to complete the KYC process every time a savings account is opened. The data collected under this process also comes under the ambit of the new data protection bill. The bank will be required to maintain KYC data for a period beyond six months of closing the account.
There's also a new set of rules for collecting and maintaining personal data of children. The entity asking for data will require the consent of the parents or the guardian to access the data. Social media companies will also have to make sure that Children's data is not being tracked for targeted advertisements.