This Former Supreme Court Judge Is Drafting India's 1st Data Privacy Law To Protect You Online

As we learned the hard way recently, having your data kept private is a crucial part of your online security and freedom. That¡¯s why Facebook came under such scrutiny for its failure in the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal, hauled up for committee hearings by both the US and EU.

India, unfortunately, doesn¡¯t have any such digital privacy laws to keep up safe. But all of that may be about to change very soon.

BN Srikrishna is a 77-year-old former Supreme Court judge from Bangalore. He¡¯s also the worst nightmare for the likes of Google, Twitter, Amazon, and Facebook. That¡¯s because it¡¯s the Union Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MEITY) constituted an expert committee last year to study and identify data protection issues in the country, and Srikrishna leads the panel. It¡¯s their job to decide how the Indian government can ensure we remain protected when using online services, even those based outside India, and draft a bill for the same.

Of course, with 1.3 billion users in India, you can bet big tech companies are wary of the possibilities. At best, they might have a few more hoops to jump through in the future. At worst, they may be in for some harsh changes to both their marketing tactics and revenue streams. And it¡¯s not some day in the future they¡¯ll have to wait for with bated breath, because Srikrishna¡¯s committee is sending its draft to the government this very week.

¡°India has accelerated from a ¡®bail gaadi¡¯ economy to a silicon-chip economy,¡± Srikrishna told Bloomberg. ¡°But privacy and data regulation rules are still far behind.¡± That¡¯s why the panel intends India to be as hands-on as possible in the data privacy of its citizens.

After all he¡¯s right. In just the past five years, India has gone from 25 million to 370 million smartphone users, according to Counterpoint Research. Even the government has been pushing for a new ¡®Digital India¡¯, primarily through the Aadhaar system, allowing Indians to transact online and in brick-and-mortar stores using nothing but their biometric IDs. Yet, despite the massive influx of newly digital users, our privacy cyber laws have abysmally lagged behind.

ALSO READ: What GDPR Means For India: How Europe's Data Protection Law May Indirectly Protect Indian Users

What was once a slow digital market is now a ripe harvest for companies looking to harness Big Data. They¡¯re realising it too, as you can tell by the increase in the number of India-focused products by the likes of Google and Facebook. But because there¡¯s no law to skirt, there¡¯s only lip service as far as data protection is concerned.

For their part, Srikanth and his nine other panel members intend to guide India towards a middle path between the US¡¯ lax digital privacy approach and the stringent laws of the EU. ¡°India is India, after all,¡± he says. They will, for the first time in India, set the standard for fair use of data, establish boundaries for data being transferred to foreign servers, and establish penalties for violations. Basically, this could finally be India¡¯s ticket to choice-based privacy for users like the recent GDPR law.

¡°Like we keep diabetes and blood pressure in check, controls are needed for data,¡± Srikrishna says. ¡°Companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Flipkart are extremely nervous.¡±