Data Protection Bill Will End Data Misuse, Punish Violators: MoS IT

The proposed data protection bill will curb misuse of customer data, and violators will face punitive measures under the law, Minister of State for Electricity and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Tuesday. The minister shared his reaction in response to the Google investigation in the US which revealed that the internet giant had misled users and continued to track their location even after opting out of the location tracking system. Google has agreed to settle the case in which it will pay about $392 million (roughly Rs. 3,178 crore), according to a statement issued by the Oregon Department of Justice.

“This kind of “misuse” of customer data violates #Privacy and #DataProtection expectations India’s #DigitalDataProtection Bill will stop this – and ensure that any Platform/Intermediary doing this will face punitive and financial consequences,” Chandrasekhar tweeted.

The government in August withdrew the Personal Data Protection Bill from the Lok Sabha and said it would come up with a “set of new rules” that would go into a comprehensive legal framework.

Government sources have revealed that a new data protection bill will be introduced during the winter session of Parliament.

Google’s Android dominates the smartphone market in India with a market share of over 95 percent. Elaborating on the settlement, the Oregon Department of Justice said location data is an important part of Google’s digital advertising business. The Company uses the personal and behavioral data it collects to create detailed user profiles and target advertisements. In fact, location data is among the most sensitive personal information collected by Google.

Even a limited amount of location data can reveal a person’s identity and habits and can be used to infer personal information. US attorneys general have found that Google violated the country’s consumer protection laws by misleading consumers about its location tracking practices since at least 2014. “Specifically, Google confused its users about the extent to which they can limit Google’s location tracking by adjusting their account and device settings,” the statement said.