The Indian government gaining more control of the industry under the Digital Personal Data Protection bill 2022 could drive away firms, which may find it hard to invest in data centres, according to a global report.
Proposed by the Ministry of Electronics and IT, the bill is open for feedback till January 2. The report argues that most of the detailed rulemaking authority will be given to separate, as yet undefined processes, under the law. The body behind the report represents big tech firms including Google, Microsoft, Meta, Twitter, Apple etc.
Government-notified data fiduciaries have also been exempted from most compliance burdens, which involves informing people about the purpose behind data collection, collecting data of children, appointing a data auditor, and more.
But union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar clarified that these exemptions are only reserved for special circumstances, when maintaining public order is a priority, and when there's an emergency such as the pandemic, or a national security risk.
Despite the concerns, the industry body has supported the bill's aspects such flexibility on data localisation. The ITI also wants the Indian government to reconsider blanket ban on monitoring behaviour of children and targeted advertising.
