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In News: The draft for the personal data protection law proposes exemption of personal information from disclosure under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, which can cause harm to the person concerned.
Under the proposed law, a Data Protection Authority (DPA) is envisaged as an independent regulatory body that will be responsible for the enforcement and effective implementation of the law.
Points to Note:
Both the right to information and the right to privacy are cherished fundamental rights and any intrusion into the privacy of individuals which is unwarranted must not happen. But in the context of a country like India where information is key to holding government accountable, we need to be very careful while balancing these two rights – Right to Information and Right to Privacy.
Protection of individual data is absolutely sacrosanct - there is no doubt about it. But on behalf of the RTI regime which we seek to protect with the Commission, there is already a robust regime in the RTI to protect private data and Section 8(1)(j) that information will not be given out unless Public Interest outweighs personal interests.
The Committee did not recommend repealing or limiting Aadhaar despite it representing a major privacy concern for the citizens.
The Committee has recommended that consent will be the basis on which data processing can take place –
Conclusion