Panel took fairly balanced call on data protection: Justice BN Srikrishna

Justice B N Srikrishna has said the committee headed by him on data protection took a 'fairly balanced' call after hearing all stakeholders, including the industry.

Some industry stakeholders have sought clarity on the issue of sharing data with third parties claiming that the committee's report did not include their inputs and a lot of grey areas had gone unaddressed.

Srikrishna said an industry representative and an academician had expressed their reservations during the deliberations.

"No industry ever wants any restrictions on any of its operations and no country ever allows any industry to operate without no restrictions whatsoever.

"There was a representative of industry who vigorously advocated their viewpoints and an academician, both of whom have given their reservations. But, the committee has ultimately taken the call which, in my view, is fairly balanced," he told PTI.

He also said every time any legislation affecting industry was passed, concerns were raised that it would increase the cost of operations. It it were to be true, all industries should be making losses, but on the contrary most of them were making profits.

Finally, the Data Protection Authority can always deal with marginal entities and give them suitable exemptions, Srikrishna said.

The central 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.