[dgplug-users] Sign the petition to Parliament: Fix the Data Protection Bill

[Ankur Kothiwal]

Dear all,

India's first data protection bill is about to be tabled in the Parliament.
While it's a step forward in many ways, the bill urgently needs edits to
effectively uphold our privacy. Now that the bill will move to the
Parliament, it could pass without these changes in a matter of days. We
need to directly petition the Parliament to ensure that the Bill is worked
upon to address our concerns.

On analysing this bill, it is clear that changes must be made for the bill
to have any real teeth:
1. *Government use of data & surveillance*: Even though the Bill has strong
requirements on private companies, it has weaker protections when it comes
to government's use of data and surveillance agencies.
2. *Missing rights*: The Bill is missing the key right to object to
processing of data which is especially concerning since the government
isn't required to ask for consent. The bill also allows users to be charged
a fee for changing or correcting their data.
3. *Independence of regulator*: This bill creates an authority to
investigate and fine companies and the government if they put our data and
privacy at risk. However, this body has not been made sufficiently
independent from the government. This needs to change for the law to
effectively regulate government agencies.
4. *Blanket data localization*: This bill requires a copy of all personal
data to be stored on servers in India. This would be bad for users,
security, and businesses, and could be a way to enable easier surveillance.

Take action now — sign the petition(link below) to ask that a Parliamentary
Standing Committee review the bill and address our concerns.
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/campaigns/india-privacy-law/sign-petition/

For more information please visit
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/campaigns/india-privacy-law/

The initiative is taken by Mozilla Foundation.

-- 
Thanks
Ankur Kothiwal
IRC: knownymous_