'Data Act will make digital companies handle info under legal obligation'

Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Thursday said the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP Act) passed by Parliament recently will make digital companies handle the data of Indian citizens under absolute legal obligation.

Calling the law an important milestone in the cyber law framework, Chandrasekhar said there will be punitive consequences of high penalty and even blocking them from operating in India.

"The Digital Personal Data Protection Act that was passed by Parliament a few days ago is a very important milestone in the global standard cyber law framework that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted to build for the India Techade' (a decade of technology) for a trillion dollar digital economy," the union minister told PTI.

The DPDP Bill is aimed at giving Indian citizens a right to have his or her data protected and casts obligations on all companies, all platforms be it foreign or Indian, small or big, to ensure that the personal data of Indian citizens is handled with absolute (legal) obligation, Chandrasekhar said.

If they do not comply with the Indian regulations, then there will be punitive consequences of high penalty and fines, and if they repeatedly violate the law they can be blocked, he added.

The minister claimed that the law would put brakes on the practice of misuse and exploitation of personal data by some companies.

Chandrasekhar opined that the bill will bring deep behavioural change among all digital platforms that deal with the Indian citizens and their personal data.