Withdrawal of Personal Data Protection Bill

On 3^rd August, 2022, the Central government withdrew the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill that had been tabled in the Lok Sabha on December 11, 2019. Commonly referred to as the “Privacy Bill”, it intended to protect individual rights by regulating the collection, movement, and processing of data that is personal, or which can identify an individual.

Reasons for withdrawing the PDP Bill: Huge Number of Amendments- The Joint Parliamentary Committee’s(JPC)which has analyzed the PDP bill, recommended 81 amendments and suggested 97 corrections and 93 recommendations to the Bill.

• Immune to the Government- The Bill also conflated issues by bringing in social media and non-personal data into its ambit and at the same time exempting the government from purview of the Act.
• Data Localization Issue- Under data localization, it would have been mandatory for companies to store a copy of certain sensitive personal data within India, and the export of undefined “critical” personal data from the country would be prohibited.
• Compliance Issue- The government has also said that it received several concerns from the tech industry — specifically from Indian start-ups — regarding the stipulations on data localisation in the Bill.