E-commerce policy: Govt proposes to regulate cross-border data flow

A new draft e-commerce policy, released on Saturday, has provided for regulating cross-border data flows, setting up storage facilities locally and establishing a ‘data authority’ to devise a framework for sharing community data.

Asserting that the country and its citizens have a ‘sovereign right’ over data, the policy disallows sensitive data collected and processed locally but stored abroad from being shared with foreign governments and businesses outside India or any such third party even with the consent of the customer. The policy proposes to grant companies three years to set up storage. It also sought a review of the extant policy of exempting electronic transmission from customs duty “in the light of the changing digital economy and the increased role that additive manufacturing is expected to take”.