New law: New startups can get relaxation in rules in Data Protection Bill, Ministry considering reforms

The government is considering giving relaxation of certain rules for startups starting their business in the proposed Digital Personal Data Protection Bill. The biggest reason behind considering this is that innovation does not go out of the country due to following the rules. However, this exemption will be given to startups only for a certain time. An official said that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (METY) is considering reforms in this bill.

The official said that this exemption may be limited to cases where some kind of data modeling is being done by the startup for the development of its solution. The draft Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) proposes to exempt only data interoperability and data processing units notified by the government to provide information on data collection, data sharing, and data processing. Last week, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the government would not be able to infringe on the privacy of citizens under the proposed law, as it would have access to personal data only in exceptional circumstances such as national security, pandemics, and natural calamities.

People can give complaints and suggestions till December 17

The bill does not give immunity to the government or the entities concerned in case of a data breach. The Union Minister informed that the government has released the draft of the DPDP Bill. It proposes a fine of up to Rs 500 crore for violation of DPDP rules. The bill is open for public comments till December 17 during which people can give their complaints and suggestions. The government can place this draft in the Parliament during the budget session.

These are the six big things off the bill

Based on the 6 principles of data economy, the government will introduce the Digital Data Protection Bill in the upcoming budget session of the Parliament. In this, the first principle talks about the collection and use of the personal data of citizens. The second point refers to the purpose. The third point mentions data minimization which states that only relevant data of individuals should be collected. The fourth big deal deals with data protection and accountability and states that the data collected must be processed securely. The fifth point talks about the accuracy of the data and the sixth principle state that in case of a data leak, it should be reported to the Data Protection Board in a fair, transparent, and equitable manner.

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