Lok Sabha passes Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023

The Lok Sabha on August 7 passed the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023.

The Bill intends to manage digital personal data by striking a balance between the necessity to legitimately handle such data for pertinent reasons and the right of individuals to have their data protected.

"A Bill to provide for the processing of digital personal data in a manner that recognises both the right of individuals to protect their personal data and the need to process such personal data for lawful purposes and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto," the Bill's text says.

Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, tabled the bill on August 3.

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The Bill covers the processing of digitally stored personal data in India, including online and digitally stored offline data. It includes procedures done outside of India in order to market products or services from India.

Except in cases when sharing voluntarily or processing is required by the state, legitimate processing of personal data requires consent.

The Bill is the first piece of legislation in India to refer to all genders using the pronouns she/her.

The Bill's "Interpretation" provision clarifies that the pronouns “her” and “she” in the proposed legislation have been used for an individual, irrespective of gender.