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Data Protection
The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Centre on a plea challenging the constitutional validity of several provisions of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023. The plea, moved by The Reporters' Collective and renowned journalist Nitin Sethi, argues that the new data regime severely dilutes the Right to Information (RTI) Act and grants the Centre "sweeping powers" over personal data. A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, while agreeing to examine the legal complexities of the Act, refused to grant an interim stay on the impugned provisions. Representing the petitioners, advocate Vrinda Grover said that the Act lacks surgical precision in its attempt to protect privacy. "Instead of using a chisel, (the legislature) has used a hammer, and has thus rendered a body blow (to RTI), " the senior lawyer said. The petition said the DPDP Act creates a blanket bar on the disclosure of personal information, ..
A Social Security official who has filed a whistleblower complaint alleging the Department of Government Efficiency officials mishandled Americans' sensitive information says he's resigning his post because of actions taken against him since making his complaint. Charles Borges, the agency's chief data officer, alleged that more than 300 million Americans' Social Security data was put at risk by DOGE officials who uploaded sensitive information to a cloud account not subject to oversight. His whistleblower disclosure was submitted to the special counsel's office on Tuesday. In a letter to SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano, Borges claimed that since filing his whistleblower complaint, the agency's actions make his duties impossible to perform legally and ethically and have caused him physical, mental and emotional distress. After reporting internally to management and externally to regulators, serious data and security and integrity concerns impacting our citizens' most sensitive ...