Flipkart terms passage of data protection bill 2023 a 'good move'

Flipkart is on the "same page" with the government on the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 which was cleared by Parliament, a senior official of the e-commerce major said on Thursday.

Parliament on Wednesday approved the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill that introduces several compliance requirements for the collection and processing of personal data and provisions for up to Rs 250 crore penalty for any data breach.

The government expects to implement Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 within 10 months.

"Obviously I think this is a very good move. We all are on the same page and as it has been just passed we are reviewing it and normally for example as I mentioned we have all the data in India. So, this is most important for us.

"So, we will continue to sort of look at the Bill, read this and make sure that if there are improvements needed ... we will continue to do that," Flipkart's Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Rajneesh Kumar told PTI on the sidelines of an event here.

The bill provides for how companies should process users' data. It allows companies to transfer users' data abroad and gives the government power to seek information from firms and issue directions to block content on the advice of a data protection board appointed by the Union government.

The government has been in the process of introducing a standalone data protection legislation since 2018.

The bill applies to the processing of digital personal data in India, where the personal data is either collected in digital form or in a non-digitised format and subsequently digitised.

The bill defines 'personal data' broadly to include any data about an individual who is identifiable or in relation to such data. 'Digital personal data' is defined to mean personal data in digital form.