The Rajya Sabha passed the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023 today, it was already approved by Lok Sabha on August 7.
Addressing the House, Union minister for electronics and information technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “Under this bill, individuals using digital services have been given more power and more obligations have been imposed on companies using data of individuals. There has been a lot of consultation on the bill and then it has been presented before the House.”
The bill will now be sent to the president Droupadi Murmu for assent following which the bill will become a law.
The opposition had expressed several concerns over the legislation and had demanded that the bill be sent to a parliamentary panel for further deliberations.
The Opposition MPs alleged that the bill violated citizens’ Right to Privacy.
The Bill applies to the processing of digital personal data within the territory of India where the personal data is collected in digital form or in non-digital form and digitised subsequently, according to Live Law.
The Bill also applies to processing of digital personal data outside the territory of India, if such processing is in connection with any activity related to offering of goods or services “to Data Principals within the territory of India.” “Data Principal” is defined as the individual to whom the personal data relates.
The Bill empowers the Union government to exempt government agencies from the application of provisions of the Bill in the interest of specified grounds such as security of the state, public order, and prevention of offences.
Penalties are also provided for various offences such as for non-fulfilment of obligations for children upto Rs 200 crore, and for failure to take security measures to prevent data breaches, upto Rs 250 crore.
