Data Bill may give govt power to lower the age of consent
Bill seen by ET. But in such cases, the company that is seeking consent for processing children's data must demonstrate that it uses the information in a “verifiably safe” manner, shows the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023, seen by ET.
An earlier draft released by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology last November had proposed 18 years as the minimum age for giving such consent and mandated that data of children below this age should be used only with explicit parental consent. Lowering the age for consent under the proposed law was one of the biggest demands of Internet companies like Facebook and Google, as that has a significant impact on their business operations in the country.
In the updated draft, the government has also switched lanes from whitelisting of countries to blacklisting of geographies where data of Indian citizens cannot be processed. It has also put additional obligations for ‘Significant Data Fiduciary’, depending on the nature and volume of data processed by a company.Also read | New Data Bill draft to allow storage in trusted nations A senior government official said the updated provision would empower the government to allow the processing of personal data of children only in circumstances where the child is the ultimate beneficiary.
“In certain critical sectors such as healthcare or where the child is the end beneficiary of a government scheme, there might arise the need for data to be processed. Under no circumstances, however, such data will be allowed to be used to serve personal advertisements or any harmful content,” the official said.
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