IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that the Modi government has started drafting a new comprehensive privacy bill. Highlighting that the law's public release is "very close", Vaishnaw said it is in well-advanced stages.

After big technology companies such as Facebook and Google raised alarm about it, India's government on Wednesday withdrew a data protection and privacy bill which was first proposed in 2019.

As a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stricter regulation of tech giants, the law had proposed stringent regulations on cross-border data flows and proposed giving the Indian government powers to seek user data from companies.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/government-welcomes-supreme-court-verdict-on-right-to-privacy-19448">Also read |&nbsp;Government welcomes Supreme Court verdict on right to privacy</a>

Leading to the need for a new "comprehensive legal framework", the decision came as a parliamentary panel's review of the 2019 bill suggested many amendments as per a government notice.

Vaishnaw told news agency Reuters that the government aims to get the new bill approved and made into law by early 2023 in the parliament's budget session which usually runs January-February.

The parliamentary panel that reviewed the old bill had already gathered industry feedback due to which the process "won’t be that long" according to Vaishnaw.

Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrashekhar tweeted “Privacy is a fundamental right of Indian citizens &amp; a Trillion-dollar Digital Economy requires Global std Cyber laws.” &nbsp;

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Tdy <a href="https://twitter.com/GoI_MeitY?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GoI_MeitY</a> withdrew the Personal Data Protection Bill,2021 from Parliament 
 
This will soon be replaced by a comprehensive framewrk of Global std laws includng Digital Privacy laws for contemporary &amp; future chllnges n catalyze PM <a href="https://twitter.com/narendramodi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@narendramodi</a> ji vision of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IndiaTechade?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IndiaTechade</a> <a href="https://t.co/4qfjmKnfPM">pic.twitter.com/4qfjmKnfPM</a>
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) <a href="https://twitter.com/Rajeev_GoI/status/1554794637767761920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 3, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Opposition parties had opposed the proposed restrictions on the use of personal data without the explicit consent of citizens in the withdrawn bill.

IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that the Modi government has started drafting a new comprehensive privacy bill. Highlighting that the law's public release is "very close", Vaishnaw said it is in well-advanced stages.

IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that the Modi government has started drafting a new comprehensive privacy bill. Highlighting that the law's public release is "very close", Vaishnaw said it is in well-advanced stages. After big technology companies such as Facebook and Google raised alarm about it, India's government on Wednesday withdrew a data protection and privacy bill which was first proposed in 2019. As a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stricter regulation of tech giants, the law had proposed stringent regulations on cross-border data flows and proposed giving the Indian government powers to seek user data from companies. Also read | Government welcomes Supreme Court verdict on right to privacy Leading to the need for a new "comprehensive legal framework", the decision came as a parliamentary panel's review of the 2019 bill suggested many amendments as per a government notice. Vaishnaw told news agency Reuters that the government aims to get the new bill approved and made into law by early 2023 in the parliament's budget session which usually runs January-February. The parliamentary panel that reviewed the old bill had already gathered industry feedback due to which the process "won’t be that long" according to Vaishnaw. Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrashekhar tweeted “Privacy is a fundamental right of Indian citizens & a Trillion-dollar Digital Economy requires Global std Cyber laws.” Tdy @GoI_MeitY withdrew the Personal Data Protection Bill,2021 from Parliament This will soon be replaced by a comprehensive framewrk of Global std laws includng Digital Privacy laws for contemporary & future chllnges n catalyze PM @narendramodi ji vision of #IndiaTechade pic.twitter.com/4qfjmKnfPM — Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) August 3, 2022 × Opposition parties had opposed the proposed restrictions on the use of personal data without the explicit consent of citizens in the withdrawn bill.

Modi government is drafting new privacy bill, says IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

On the day the Indian government's new rules for social media come into effect, it has emerged that WhatsApp has gone to Delhi High Court against them, citing violation of privacy.

The rules, the information technology (intermediary guidelines and digital media ethics code rules), 2021 which were notified on February 25&nbsp;call for new compliances, like traceability of messages to find&nbsp;the first originator of a message.

WhatsApp in its case has highlighted that this means&nbsp;going through messages which will be violative of its end-to-end encryption, which means messages can't be read except between two&nbsp;users or in a group.

In response to a question from WION, a WhatsApp spokesperson said, "Requiring messaging apps to “trace” chats is the equivalent of asking us to keep a fingerprint of every single message sent on WhatsApp, which would break end-to-end encryption and fundamentally undermines people's right to privacy."&nbsp;

"We will also continue to engage with the government of India on practical solutions aimed at keeping people safe, including responding to valid legal requests for the information available to us," the spokesman added.

No social media company&nbsp;barring Indian social media Koo has implemented these rules.

Non-compliance with&nbsp;the&nbsp;rules could attract criminal charges.

A three&nbsp;month period was given to all social media apps and websites to implement these rules.&nbsp;The new compliances require the appointment of chief compliance officers, resident grievance officer, active monitoring of the harmful content, monthly compliance report, disabling access to objectionable information.

Interestingly,&nbsp;the development comes even as WhatsApp has been under fire over its new privacy policy.

Under the policy, certain data like financial transactions done via WhatsApp can be shared with its parent company Facebook.

While there is no breaking of&nbsp;end-to-end encryption under it,&nbsp;in the past users risked losing right over an account if not given consent for the privacy policy. This has been relaxed now to a certain extent.

There have been increased run-ins between the Indian government and social media apps like Twitter over data and recent&nbsp;labelling of tweets by members of ruling BJP as "manipulated media".

Earlier in the week, Delhi Police had gone to the offices of Twitter India to serve them notice over the "toolkit incident" under which the social media giant had labelled the tweets as "manipulated".

On the day the Indian government's new rules for social media come into effect, it has emerged that WhatsApp has gone to Delhi High Court against them, citing violation of privacy.

On the day the Indian government's new rules for social media come into effect, it has emerged that WhatsApp has gone to Delhi High Court against them, citing violation of privacy. The rules, the information technology (intermediary guidelines and digital media ethics code rules), 2021 which were notified on February 25 call for new compliances, like traceability of messages to find the first originator of a message. WhatsApp in its case has highlighted that this means going through messages which will be violative of its end-to-end encryption, which means messages can't be read except between two users or in a group. In response to a question from WION, a WhatsApp spokesperson said, "Requiring messaging apps to “trace” chats is the equivalent of asking us to keep a fingerprint of every single message sent on WhatsApp, which would break end-to-end encryption and fundamentally undermines people's right to privacy." "We will also continue to engage with the government of India on practical solutions aimed at keeping people safe, including responding to valid legal requests for the information available to us," the spokesman added. No social media company barring Indian social media Koo has implemented these rules. Non-compliance with the rules could attract criminal charges. A three month period was given to all social media apps and websites to implement these rules. The new compliances require the appointment of chief compliance officers, resident grievance officer, active monitoring of the harmful content, monthly compliance report, disabling access to objectionable information. Interestingly, the development comes even as WhatsApp has been under fire over its new privacy policy. Under the policy, certain data like financial transactions done via WhatsApp can be shared with its parent company Facebook. While there is no breaking of end-to-end encryption under it, in the past users risked losing right over an account if not given consent for the privacy policy. This has been relaxed now to a certain extent. There have been increased run-ins between the Indian government and social media apps like Twitter over data and recent labelling of tweets by members of ruling BJP as "manipulated media". Earlier in the week, Delhi Police had gone to the offices of Twitter India to serve them notice over the "toolkit incident" under which the social media giant had labelled the tweets as "manipulated".

WhatsApp goes to court over Indian government's new IT rules

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Modi government is drafting new privacy bill, says IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

WhatsApp goes to court over Indian government's new IT rules