Min: Cos can collect people's data after consent in native language

BHUBANESWAR: Union communications, electronics and information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Monday said the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, notified on Saturday, will ensure the internet remains safe, open and trusted with enough safeguards for protection of personal data of citizens.
Speaking exclusively to TOI, Vaishnaw said, "Companies can collect data only after informed consent of citizens in any of the 22 native languages that people understand.The terms and conditions will be very clear and in easy-to-understand language."
The Act will be a great step towards protecting citizens' data, which is collected by so many platforms, in so many different ways.
Vaishnaw said, "With implementation of the Act, now the citizen has to give consent for the data which will be collected. Citizens can say no. Every citizen will understand what the consent form is in (his/her) own language. It will be a very democratic way of making sure one's data is properly protected."
He said the government is parallelly working on the rules for the data Act and its roll-out will be completely digital.
Highlighting the six-year-long consultation process which has gone into making this Act during which 23,666 suggestions were received and processed, the minister said, "All the principles which are required to protect the citizens' data, have been codified. The right to privacy given by the Supreme Court has been incorporated."
Stating that there will be a huge obligation on the part of the government to implement the Act, the minister said the Centre will take all steps to ensure that the data is properly secured and privacy is protected.
Since data collected by social media platforms and large technology companies is humongous, he said, "We need to protect our citizens from large data banks, which have been collected over the years. We need to protect our children. We need to make sure that our startups continue to thrive. We need to ensure that our large IT industry goes to different countries and showcases the data protection law and attract investment."