The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology in its report titled “Cyber-Crime, Cyber Security and Right to Privacy”, which was submitted on February 10, has admonished the Government for dragging its feet on a privacy legislation.
The committee, which was chaired by former Congress MP, Rao Inderjit Singh — who defected to the BJP on Thursday — makes a no-holds-barred recommendation on cyber security and right to privacy. The Committee has 16 members from Lok Sabha and 9 from Rajya Sabha.
“The Committee are extremely unhappy to note that the government is yet to institute a legal framework on privacy”, the report states. The 88-page report also shows that the members of Parliament are both aware and concerned about issues of privacy, noting that, “balancing cyber security and right to privacy is extremely complex.” CERT-IN's efforts in strengthening India's cyber security have however, come in for praise.
In the detailed depositions by various government officials, the Standing Committee states that it was “given to understand that in absence of any bill on privacy, the IT Act 2000 as amended in 2008 takes care of data privacy and data protection”.
Further justifying this, the bureaucrats informed the Committee that, “The Act contains adequate provisions to deal with various cyber-related offences as well as protection of privacy of individuals”. The report also lists the various “penalties and stringent punishment” for offences.
The Committee rejected outright the government’s contention that the IT Act was sufficient to protect the privacy of citizens and human rights. The Committee, after receiving the evidence, not only expressed its “extreme” displeasure, but in fact accused the Government of having “diverted the issue stating that the Department of Personnel and Training is still in the process of evolving legislation to address concerns of privacy, in general, and it is still at drafting stage.”
Multi-stakeholderThe Committee, in its report, has further stated that, “In view of enormous data, very sensitive in nature, being consigned to a cyber space each day, particularly in light of government’s visionary UIDAI program, the government should not jeopardise the privacy of citizens on the plea that government is concerned only with section 43(A) which is based on self-regulation”.
Further, acknowledging the “complex nature of the cyber space and maturity and competence required in balancing cyber security and right to privacy”, the Committee has recommended that, “the Department [DeitY] in coordination with Department of Personnel and Training, multidisciplinary professionals/experts should come out with a comprehensive and people-friendly policy that may protect the privacy of citizens and is also fool-proof from security point-of-view.”
India is the world’s 3rd largest country in terms of Internet users.
Out of the 2.7 billion Internet users worldwide, 205 million, including 95 million social media users are in India. By 2012, India had 180 million registered email accounts and 14 million websites.