Deciphering Right to Informational Privacy in India: A Comparative Analysis of DPDP Bill, 2022 and DPDP Act, 2023
Author : Neha Agarwal
Abstract :
The advent of digital age has prompted a need to shift focus beyond safeguarding the privacy of one’s physical home. A new phenomenon of data-veillance has emerged due to widespread monitoring of people’s actions using technology. The notion of informational privacy gained momentum in India with the recognition of right to privacy as a fundamental aspect of right to life under Article 21 by the Supreme Court in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India. However, this judicial recognition was not accompanied by prescription of specific boundaries or mechanism for safeguarding data privacy. To overcome this challenge, this paper aims to identify safeguards to restrict arbitrary exercise of power by both state and private actors in the data-sphere. By undertaking a comparative analysis between Digital Data Protection Bill, 2022 (hereinafter referred as ‘Bill’) and Digital Data Protection Act, 2023 (hereinafter referred as ‘Act’), this paper reviews whether a protracted period of consideration on the data protection law by the Parliament with relevant stakeholders has yielded into a robust law which not only safeguards personal data but also strikes a balance by addressing the necessity for lawful processes. To this end, the paper begins with an outline of key provisions of the Bill and Act and identifies trends of deviations between them. It proceeds with the evaluation of the Act on the anvil of the aforementioned four-fold proportionality test to demonstrate certain contentious aspects of the Act that may significantly diminish FRIP in India. The final segment proposes measures to overcome the legal conundrums surrounding the Act by employing ‘Privacy by Design’ framework within the law for it to withstand constitutional scrutiny.
Keywords :
Informational privacy, privacy by design, accountability framework, data empowerment, proportionality test
