India: Closed consultation on Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022 including data protection regulations

On 2 January 2023, the public consultation on the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill 2022, which includes data protection regulations, closed. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) extended the deadline for submitting comments from 17 December 2022 to 2 January 2023. The Bill would amend the Information Technology Act of 2000 and the Right to Information Act of 2005 and would apply to data collected online and data collected offline then digitised within Indian territory, as well as data collected outside the country if they show correlations with Indian individuals. According to the Bill, data collection can only take place within the terms set by law, and it must ensure respect for individuals' privacy and transparency. In addition, consent must be free, specific and informed. Specific obligations are introduced regarding the processing of children's data, which are considered a special category deserving of greater protection, including the consent of parents or guardians, the prohibition of harm of any kind to the child, and the prohibition of data editing and targeted advertising. The purpose for which the data are collected must be manifest to the individuals to whom the data relate. The rights of so-called Data Principals, i.e., the individuals to whom the data relate, are established, and a specific provision defining their duties is introduced to prevent the improper exercise of rights that could undermine the rights of others. Data principals will have the right to request the deletion or correction of data about them and to appoint a person to whom they can delegate their rights.