A STUDY OF THE LAW REFORMS NEEDED IN THE DATA PROTECTION LAW OF INDIA

Abstract

Presently, in our country there is no legislation that has been passed for protection of personal information or personal data collected by various institutions and organisations. It is a run of the mill now, that an individual’s data is collected for purpose A, but then is used for purpose B which has not been consented by the individual from whom the data is collected. Many a times this data is even sold to various organizations in return for a monetary benefit, and then this data is used by the companies who have purchased it, to further their marketing base and approach customers to outdo other organisations in their business.

Also, not only for targeting customer to enrich their marketing base, but data of individuals is also collected to completely monitor and stalk their various activities such as daily surfing, the things they like, shopping sites they use, which web pages they frequently visit, or which religion do they follow or which political party are they inclined to, as in the Cambridge Analytica case. This information is used for various dark uses, which the customer cannot even think of.

This whole aspect of data protection circulates around the right to privacy of an individual, which is guaranteed under the constitution. Accordingly, various provision of the draft bill of the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 have been discussed below and reforms have been suggested for the same. This is a research paper conducting a law reform research in the context of the current Indian legal scenario on personal data protection of individuals..