Data protection Bill: Adjudicating officer to decide compensation amount

To recover the miniscule amount, the telecom consumers may have to spend much more in taking legal recourse

The amount of compensation for misusing or unauthorisedly using data has not been specified in the draft personal data protection Bill, which, however, has provisions for stiff penalties.

The amount will be decided by the adjudicating officer probing a complaint by an individual. As the amount awarded will be subjective, some of the privacy advocates say not many people may lodge a complaint because the amount awarded may not be big enough.

The Justice B N Srikrishna-led panel, which had submitted its report and draft Bill to the government a couple of days ago, proposes that in the case of