India is in the process of revamping its legal regime for adapting with continuous digital transformation and speed with which technology is reaching every individual and making them vulnerable. It is a time-taking exercise for the regulators, but the process is already underway. The launch of 5G has made it all the more important for the country to have a comprehensive regime in place without any overlapping provisions to effectively deal with the present day challenges.??
Awareness is the key for making businesses future ready. Hence, this article briefly describes some of the significant legal developments which have been taking place in India.??
- Personal Data Protection Bill:?The withdrawal of the much talked about personal data protection bill is not an end, but a step towards bringing into force a comprehensive legislation for effectively regulating all aspects of data protection. It is like taking a step back to move forward. Once enacted, the new regime will change forever the way businesses deal with data in India.?Although India has missed the chance to have a separate full-fledged law as of now, the existing law remains in force requiring compliance by all businesses for protecting sensitive personal information.?
- Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022:?The bill seems to be premised on the principle that there should be the same rules for the same players in the market. It seeks to?inter alia?regulate over the top and other players in the manner similar to other telecom service providers operating in the market. As a consequence, the definition of telecommunication is very wide as of now. Amidst objections from the industry, it appears that the bill will cover the communication apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. which of course are great platforms for communication but needs to be regulated for safety and other concerns. Similarly, the over the top media services are great for entertainment, but the same requires regulation given the issue of display of violent, abusive and similar contents which are not appropriate for all age groups. The regulations for digital media ethics do regulate them but that's not enough.?
- Digital India Act:?It is being reported that the Government is also in the process of introducing a new Digital India Act replacing the existing Information Technology Act with the objective of catering to the present day requirements.?
- CERT-In:?Indian Computer Emergency Response Team is a national agency responsible for cyber security incident response and proactive measures for prevention of cyber incidents.?In order to access the right information to perform its functions for ensuring safe and trusted internet, it has?inter alia?mandated reporting of cyber incidents within 6 hours along with 180 days’ logs of the information and communication technology by all service providers, intermediaries, data center's, body corporate, Virtual Private Server providers, cloud service providers, Virtual Private Network Service providers, virtual asset service providers, virtual asset exchange providers, custodian wallet providers and Government organisations.?
- Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021:?These regulations issued under the Information Technology Act?inter alia?provides a safe harbour to the intermediaries for third-party contents on their platforms subject to compliance with prescribed conditions including observing due diligence, having privacy policy and terms of use, having adopted reasonable security measures, appointment of grievance officer for redressal of complaints, taking down third-party unlawful contents, tracing first originator of messages, etc.?Significant social media intermediaries have been mandated to appoint compliance officers and file compliance reports. It also regulates OTT media services and has laid down a code of ethics for them for the type of content they show and how the same is classified to indicate the suitability of audiences of different age groups, parental control/restricted access of children to the contents meant for adults, grievance redressal mechanism, etc.?
The rules being laid down will have a far reaching impact on almost every business operating in the country. Consequently, adopting policies and systems in line with these legal and regulatory developments for imbibing a culture of compliance is as important as adopting new technologies in the business to gain an edge over others.
