The Union government has brought the much-awaited draft of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill. Minister of Information and Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw today shared the draft on social media and sought the views of citizens.
The Bill does not seek to regulate non-personal data and the Union government is expecting to present it in the Parliament in the next budget session.
The bill requires any entities processing the personal data of users to give an itemised notice in simple and plain language to all users about the types of personal data collected. It also mandates that the users should have the right to withdraw consent for data usage from the processing entity, like a social media platform, from using their personal data.
Behavioural monitoring and targeted advertising to children have been prohibited too. Data fiduciaries (processing entities, like social media platforms or any digital platform) have to first obtain parental consent before using the children’s data.
In an important and landmark move, the government has, for the first time, used the pronouns ‘she’ and ‘her’ instead of the default ‘he’ and ‘him’ in this draft.
Speaking to the media about the welcome change, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “In the philosophy of women empowerment that PM Modi’s government works, we have attempted to use the words ‘she and ‘her’ instead of ‘he’ and ‘him’ in the entire bill.”