The much-awaited Justice Srikrishna Panel draft report on personal data protection is here, and it has advocated the idea of ‘explicit’ consent for sensitive data. The report also lists 13 kinds of information that could be considered sensitive personal data including caste and intersex status. “Sensitive personal data may be processed on the basis of explicit consent,” the panel headed by Justice BN Srikrishna said in the report titled ‘The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018’.
The report has listed 13 pieces of information that could be considered as Sensitive Personal Data:
- passwords
- financial data
- health data
- official identifier
- sex life
- sexual orientation
- biometric data
- genetic data
- transgender status
- intersex status
- caste or tribe
- religious or political belief or affiliation
- any other category of data specified by the Authority under section 22
The high-level panel submitted its report to the government on Friday, wrapping up nearly one year of deliberations that touched upon sensitive and controversial issues. The government had constituted the 10-member committee in July 2017 to recommend a framework for securing personal data in the increasingly digitised economy as also to address privacy concerns and build safeguards against data breaches, news agency PTI reported.
The panel report also proposed a penalty, which may extend up to Rs five crore or 2% of the total worldwide turnover of the preceding fiscal year, if a data fiduciary contravenes with the proposed provisions of data protection.