Law for privacy in india and other countries
The provision on data localisation is also one of the most contentious. The original 2018 bill had a blanket data localisation provision that was severely critiqued. In subsequent versions of the bill, this was relaxed a bit because of heavy pushbacks from other countries. The Data Protection Bill of 2021 now provides for soft localisation, requiring the mirroring of sensitive personal data and mandatory local processing for critical data. In other words, it permits the transfer and storage of sensitive personal data outside India, provided that a copy is stored locally. Sensitive personal data includes data relating to health, religion, sex life, political beliefs, biometrics, genetics, finance, etc. Such data can be transferred outside the country if certain conditions are met – exactly along the lines of the GDPR’s adequacy mechanism. However, there is a bar on the transfer of critical data outside the country. It must be processed and stored exclusively in India. But the preci...