IBM India eyes digital trade agreement under data privacy law

IBM is in favour of introducing a digital trade agreement under the proposed data privacy law that the government is currently working on, which will allow data sharing on consent without compromising privacy. According to the company, this will foster innovation in sectors, including healthcare and agriculture.

A committee under Justice BN Srikrishna is working on a framework on data privacy law and is likely to submit its report soon. As part of this process, the committee has consulted various stakeholders concerning this issue.  

“We have provided our recommendations. Firstly, we want that ownership and privacy should rest with whoever owns the data. Our second recommendation is on the flow and access of data. Under this, we have shared that just like any other commodity, data will also require a digital trade agreement, which will foster innovation,” according to Prashant Pradhan, chief technology officer, IBM India and South Asia.

 

Giving examples where such trade arrangements can be done, Pradhan said if IBM collects data from a healthcare provider such as Manipal Hospital and wants to share it with genomics experts in the US for discovering new treatment options, it will need data access for doing so. 

The company also said a stricter data localisation policy could be restrictive in nature and might hamper innovation in different fields.