New law makes govt equally liable for any data breach | India News – Times of India
“Technically, if the government has data and thereafter breaches the data – and this can be any government entity – that dispute too will be adjudicated by the Data Protection Board,” Chandrasekhar told TOI.
He said law will treat any kind of data breach equally. “To make the argument that somehow the government enjoys a certain different standard of obligation under the law is incorrect. There is absolutely no differentiation in the obligations under the law for any entity as long as it’s a data fiduciary. That means, if you collect data – regardless of whether you are government or private – you will be liable to follow the law and carry out the obligations that have been laid out for you as a data fiduciary.”
The minister also said that not much should be read into the ‘exemptions’ the government gets in terms of accessing data under certain situations. “If you are dealing with a terrorist, you cannot go and have his consent to look at his data. If you’re in an emergency situation like an earthquake, you cannot go to the people buried under a rubble and ask whether you can get their personal data. If there’s a pandemic and there are people admitted to hospital, you certainly cannot go and ask, ‘Can I take your consent to find out your blood group?’ So, in emergency situations, the government does not need to seek consent to access personal data… Also, every fundamental right in India has reasonable restrictions. They are not absolute rights. And certainly, in the case of data protection, there are reasonable restrictions. And reasonable restrictions allow government to access without consent in some circumstances, like I said, terrorism, pandemic, natural disasters, etc.”
Asked how soon can the new law be implemented once it is notified after the President’s assent, he said the effort will be to see that the big platforms are made to migrate early, possibly within a year. “For industry to migrate to this new regime in an orderly manner without disruptions is a priority. We believe there will be a graded approach in which the larger, or the more sophisticated platforms that deal with lots of consumers will need to migrate faster. These will be Big Tech, and the larger multinational and national companies, among others. We will request them to migrate in the shortest possible time so that our citizens get the rights that the law gives them at the earliest.” However, he said the government will be “reasonable” when it negotiates the rollout.
