Digital Data Protection Bill uses brevity and vagueness to empower government, undermine privacy by Apar Gupta November 25,2022. https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/apar-gupta-writes-digital-data-protection-bill-brevity-vagueness-empower-government-undermine-privacy-8279134/ The proposed legislation sacrifices legal rigour in favour of a concerning expansion of state power that tilts the law against the interests of individual privacy.
the Supreme Court in the Justice Puttaswamy judgment reaffirmed the fundamental right to privacy it contained specific legal standards as a three-part test. This includes words such as, “necessary”, “reasonable” and, “proportional” which are terms of art and exist as legal doctrines.
.. lack of detail is only one among many. Vagueness animates several proposed clauses that create vast regulatory power for the central government. They will determine significant policy choices that are usually first prescribed, but presently absent in legislative guidance. It has been India’s constitutional experience that such unhappy drafting often manifests in the arbitrary exercise of executive power.
the section on user rights is not only underdeveloped but even now contains penalties for users, who are essentially the beneficiaries of a data protection law...One of the most curious provisions is Clause 16 which places a duty on users to, “furnish such information as is verifiably authentic”, or face a potential penalty for a fine. When you bundle this with the requirements for authentication that are proposed for users in the Telecommunications Bill, 2022, it can mean the death of online anonymity and pseudonymous identities with the creation of a vast surveillance apparatus.