Data privacy bill row

The Personal Data Protection Bill was on Wednesday referred to a joint select committee of both Houses of Parliament amid strong protests from the Opposition, which said citizens’ right to privacy was being compromised.

Introducing the bill, Union electronics and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said it would empower the government to ask companies, including Facebook and Google, for anonymous personal and non-personal data.

The Opposition, which had said the bill should be sent to the department standing committee, walked out in protest.

The standing committee, headed by Shashi Tharoor of the Congress, had recently decided to take up the WhatsApp snooping case despite reservations expressed by BJP members on the panel.