Source –\u00a0hindustantimes.com<\/p>\n
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B.N. Srikrishna is a genial, 77-year-old former Supreme Court judge who recites Shakespeare and Sanskrit scriptures with equal facility. But he\u2019s making the likes of Google, Amazon and Facebook more than a little nervous.<\/p>\n
Srikrishna is leading the effort to draft new data-privacy laws for India that will regulate how tech giants from the US and elsewhere operate in the nation of 1.3 billion. His recommendations carry particular weight because India is already the biggest market for companies like Facebook Inc. and offers enormous potential for dozens more. The committee Srikrishna helms will send its bill to the government this week.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re going well beyond the hands-off American approach that preceded fiascoes like the Facebook breach, which facilitated Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, or the Equifax hack, which exposed personal information of about 145 million people. He and his colleagues are determined to modernise the country\u2019s standards and protect all citizens.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndia has accelerated from a \u2018bail gaadi\u2019 economy to a silicon-chip economy,\u201d said Srikrishna, using the Hindi expression for ox cart. \u201cBut privacy and data regulation rules are still far behind.\u201d<\/p>\n
India has been careening into the digital age. The number of people with smartphones soared to 370 million users at end 2017, from 25 million in 2012, according to Counterpoint Research. The government has also developed one of the world\u2019s most ambitious biometric identity systems, called Aadhaar, which assigned unique 12-digit numbers to 1.1 billion Indians and registered their fingerprints, iris scans and demographic details. That data is now used for everything from tax returns and property purchases to welfare disbursals and WhatsApp payments.<\/p>\n
But this flood of data — and an absence of regulation — has fuelled concern among privacy activists and citizens groups. That\u2019s been aggravated by government practices, including a recent misstep by the southern state of Andhra Pradesh that inadvertently exposed the demographic and bank details of more than 130,000 people.<\/p>\n
\u201cData-poor India is rapidly becoming a data-rich economy so having a data protection law is critical,\u201d said Srikanth Nadhamuni, chief executive officer of startup incubator Khosla Labs and former chief technology officer for Aadhaar.<\/p>\n
The diminutive, grey-haired Srikrishna discussed the debate during an interview in his Mumbai office, which is so compact that chairs for visitors prevent the door from opening fully. He plans to navigate a \u201cmiddle path\u201d between the laissez-faire US approach and the stringent General Data Protection Regulation just imposed in Europe. \u201cIndia is India, after all,\u201d he said, seated in front of a MacBook and pile of papers.<\/p>\n
The 10-member committee he heads — comprising academics and government officials — is putting the finishing touches to their bill. The draft will need parliament approval to be enacted.<\/p>\n
Currently, foreign companies and hundreds of home-grown startups collect, aggregate, store and process Indian user data unhindered. The Google-backed delivery app Dunzo, for instance, requires access to a customer\u2019s contact list, location, messages, media files and call information at the time of installation. Such information is gathered \u201conly to improve the user\u2019s experience of initiating\/running a task on the Dunzo App,\u201d the startup said in an email.<\/p>\n
Srikrishna\u2019s framework would rein in such practices. It will detail what is fair use, whether technology giants can transfer data across the border, and how to enforce accountability and penalties for violations. It will also establish whether users can access and control their own data, like with the EU\u2019s GDPR.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike we keep diabetes and blood pressure in check, controls are needed for data,\u201d Srikrishna said. \u201cCompanies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Flipkart are extremely nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Google declined to comment while Facebook didn\u2019t respond to an email seeking comment.<\/p>\n
Srikrishna retired in 2006 from the Supreme Court. Since then, he has headed several high-profile commissions, including one investigating government salaries. He believes the average Indian has no idea how much data they\u2019re generating or how it\u2019s being used. He contends a mere click of an English-language consent form is inadequate in a country with almost two dozen official and hundreds of other languages — and low literacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cShould we then have pictograph warnings for consent, like they have on cigarette packs?\u201d he asked. The country has no culture of privacy either: Only last year did the Supreme Court rule that privacy is a fundamental right.<\/p>\n
The biggest challenge according to Srikrishna is not drawing up laws but enforcing them. His own job ends when he submits the draft this week, but he knows that won\u2019t be the end of the debate.<\/p>\n
He quotes from Shakespeare\u2019s Julius Caesar, when Mark Antony warns that an act of mischief will disrupt the power of government: \u201c\u2018Now let it work. Mischief thou art afoot, take thou what course thou wilt!\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n