Joint Committee of Parliament examining the draft Data Protection Bill considers action against Amazon.
- Posted By
10Pointer
- Categories
Polity
- Published
26th Oct, 2020
-
- The JPC has sought views from Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, Google and Paytm are among the companies from whom the committee on data security and protection amid concerns about the privacy of users being “compromised” for commercial interest.
- Amazon has declined to depose before the panel, stating that its “subjects’ experts” cannot take the risk of traveling from the U.S. during the coronavirus pandemic.
- The Parliamentary Panel has said that Amazon’s “refusal” amounts to a breach of parliamentary privilege.
- The House Panel has asked:
- Do social media giants obtain the consent of their users before their data is shared with third parties?
- What is their revenue model, method of paying taxes, advertisers and the process of choosing target audience for these advertisers, background verification of its users including the process to find out the age of a new user?
- Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019:
- According to the Bill, personal data pertains to characteristics, traits or attributes of identity, which can be used to identify an individual. Such characteristics or traits will also include any inference drawn from such data for the purpose of profiling.
- Sensitive personal data includespersonal data related to health, sex life, sexual orientation, financial data, among others.
- The power to further categorise personal data as sensitive personal datawill lie with the central government (in consultation with Data Protection Authority and the sector regulator concerned).
- Personal data may be processed without obtaining the consent of the individual on certain grounds.
- These include: (1) if required by the State for providing benefits to the individual, and (2) for reasonable purposes specified by the Authority, such as fraud detection, debt recovery, and whistle blowing.
- The Bill defines a social media intermediaryas an intermediary which enables online interaction between users and allows for sharing of information.
- All social media intermediarieswhich are classified as significant data fiduciaries must provide a voluntary user verification mechanism for all users in India.
- The government can exempt any of its agencies from any or all provisions of the Act,for processing of personal data in certain cases.
