In the monsoon session, a new data protection measure will be tabled. Centre notifies SC

According to sources, the Center informed the Supreme Court that a new data protection bill would be submitted in the monsoon session of Parliament.

The prepared draft was delivered to the constitution bench, which also consists of justices Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy, and C T Ravikumar and is presided over by Justice KM Joseph.

During the hearing of petitions contesting WhatsApp's policy of sharing users' data with the Facebook group of firms, Attorney General R. Venkatramani informed the constitution bench about the new bill.

Public comments on the proposed legislation were requested starting in November 2022 and were last accepted on January 2, 2023. Since then, the Ministry has been compiling and examining the feedback and opinions in order to forward the law. The proposal suggested that businesses stop storing data with businesses by default and only use customer data for the original purposes for which it was collected.

If the new Bill is approved by the Parliament, it would replace the 2011-notified Information Technology Rules.

According to reports, the new bill would also address petitioners' worries about the safety of personal data in conjunction with WhatsApp's privacy policy.