NEW DELHI — February 25, 2020 — BSA | The Software Alliance today filed comments to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019.

BSA encourages India to enact comprehensive legislation to protect effectively consumer privacy and personal information in India. The ongoing parliamentary consultations on the personal data protection bill are a step in the right direction to ensure that the legislation will achieve its goals while allowing innovative software-enabled services to drive economic growth and support job creation.

Although BSA shares the Government of India’s goals in protecting consumer privacy, the current version of the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 has several provisions that do not advance this objective and will, instead, pose substantial challenges, including the sweeping new powers for the government to acquire non-personal data, restrictions on data transfers, and local storage requirements.

"BSA is committed to working with the Government of India to create robust and comprehensive privacy legislation. We urge the Joint Parliamentary Committee, as it considers revisions to the Bill, to eliminate provisions concerning non-personal data from the Personal Data Protection Bill and to remove the data localization requirements and restrictions on international data flows," said Venkatesh Krishnamoorthy, Country Manager — India, BSA | The Software Alliance.

BSA looks forward to continuing our work with policymakers in India to create robust personal data protection legislation which will strengthen the trust that is necessary to promote full participation in digital society. Read more about BSA’s commitment to data privacy here.