Firstpost: New Delhi: Sunday, July 29, 2018.
The draft
personal data protection law recommended by the Justice Srikrishna Committee
proposes exemption of those personal information from disclosure under the
Right to Information (RTI) Act, which can cause harm to the person
concerned.The 213-page report, prepared by a 10-member committee set up last
year under the chairmanship of the retired Supreme Court judge, Justice B.N.
Srikrishna, said the data protection law is designed to limit the processing of
personal data to legitimate reasons where the flow of information is beneficial
and respects the autonomy of the data principal.
The report
which was submitted to the government on 27 July has proposed amendments to the
Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act which mentions exemptions from the disclosures
under the Act."In addition to the likelihood of harm, disclosure should be
restricted only where any likely harm outweighs the common good of transparency
and accountability in the functioning of public authorities," the report
said regarding any personal information with a government authority."Only
if such information is likely to cause harm to a data principal and such harm
outweighs the aforementioned public interest, can the information be exempted
from disclosure," it added.The report noted that nothing contained in the
data protection bill will apply to the disclosure under Section 8(1)(j)
section. This is to prevent privacy from becoming a stonewalling tactic to
hinder transparency, it added."The RTI Act prescribes a standard for
privacy protection in laying out an exemption to transparency requirements
under Section 8(1)(j). This needs to be amended to clarify when it will be
activated and to harmonise the standard of privacy employed with the general
data protection statute."
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