View: Data protection law must guard against internal and foreign threats to citizen privacy

The inaugural Parliament session of the government’s second term began with IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad proclaiming passing a data protection law as a top priority. This news was as encouraging as it was worrying. While the lack of a law safeguarding privacy is becoming ever more dangerous and untenable, it did not bode well that no one outside government has seen the current version of the bill. And with a complete majority in Lok Sabha, there was justifiable cynicism that the government would pass this bill without proper parliamentary scrutiny.

The last public version of the Personal Data Protection Bill, made available last year, suffered from critical weaknesses around surveillance and the independence of the regulator. News reports suggest “changes” have been made, but we don’t even have an inkling which way the needle has moved.