GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

RAJYA SABHA

QUESTION NO. 2090

ANSWERED ON 11^TH JULY 2019

Selling of private information of users

2090. SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR:

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFROMATION TECHNOLOGY be please to state:

a) whether selling of private information of users by social networking sites has come to the notice of Government;

b) if so, the details thereof;

c) whether Government has made any rules to prevent the misuse of sharing of private information of users without their consent;

d) if so, the details thereof; and

e) whether Government has taken any action to deal with the said issue and if so, the details thereof'?

ANSWER

(a)and (b) Yes, Sir. Few instances of data breaches by private social media websites were reported in the media. Government took notice of reports about leakage of data by Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, and in responses to notices sent to them, Facebook conveyed that there had been unauthorised data leakage by Cambridge Analyitica. However, since the reply given by Cambridge Analyitica was not adequately convincing, CBI has been asked to investigate this matter with regard to possible misuse by Cambridge Analytica.

(c)to (e) Government had constituted a committee of expert on data protection, chaired by Justice (Retd) B.N. Srikrishna, Supreme Court of India to study various issues relating to data protection and come out with Data Protection Bill. The said committee has brought out a draft Personal Data Protection Bill (PDPB). The Bill seeks to bring in place a culture of privacy by design and promoting concepts such as consent framework, purpose limitation, storage limitation, and data minimization among various other privacy-oriented concepts. Wide ranging consultations have been conducted on the recommendations of the committee with a view to finalizing the draft legislation.

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