Out of the four new bills signed into law by President Droupadi Murmu on August 12, none has garnered more scrutiny and commentary than the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, now a supposedly tough act that all digital players in the country have to follow.
While the law is stated to safeguard the interests (literally and figuratively) of the ‘digital nagrik’, as defined by the central government, as they navigate the digital ecosystem and its many layers, walled gardens and the great outside, it also means the introduction of a raft of rights and duties for so called ‘Data Fiduciaries’ (persons, companies and government entities who process data), ‘Data Principals’ (the person to whom the data relates), and financial penalties for breach of rights, duties and obligations.
Given that the entire digital advertising ecosystem depends on consumer data, exchange4media asked industry experts how this will impact publishers, local and international advertisers, and of course, media exchanges
What It Means
Vivek Das, CEO, FoxyMoron (Zoo Media), observes that India’s Data Protection Bill has defined the role of Data Fiduciaries who will be responsible for ensuring 100% compliance and also raising complaints to the Data Protection Board in case of violation.
“The key point to note here is that while there is no provision of ‘right to be forgotten’, there is a clear requirement for deletion of data once the purpose has been met. However, in case of large-scale and long-term data users like social media platforms, this is a loophole as they can continue to store the data in perpetuity especially because the consumer doesn’t have the right to be forgotten,” he says.
This will especially be true for local platforms whose business is entirely in India. However, global platforms have to also comply with GDPR (the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, the gold standard of data regulation) which requires them to provide users with a mechanism to ask for deletion of their data completely.
Mitesh Kothari, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, White Rivers Media, believes the bill could also necessitate a re-evaluation of targeted advertising strategies due to potential restrictions on data processing for profiling and targeting. “Advertisers must align their initiatives with the bill’s provisions to ensure responsible data handling, customer trust, and privacy-centric branding. While data management is facilitated through consent and compliance measures, challenges may arise around AI-generated content and potential fraudulent activities,” adds Kothari.
Vinod Kumar Anand, Chief Business Officer, DViO Digital, points out that many countries already had similar bills in place, meaning it shouldn’t be challenging for Indian companies or those operating in the Indian market to navigate through this and implement the best practices that are already established.
“The responsibility lies with both – the entity collecting the data and the entity using the data in any capacity. A simple yet crucial keyword to ensure the safety of all parties is consent. Most reputable media exchanges already have data privacy measures in place, while those that do not will now need to appoint data security personnel or establish a dedicated department/team for compliance,
