A government panel will submit its report to IT minister Dayanidhi Maran by the end of next month for an in-depth review of the IT Act proposing amendments, including a data protection law."The IT Act review expert panel will submit the report by the end of July and, among other things, data protection law is part of the proposed amendement. The larger issue is harmonising the need to support a booming industry through adequate law and, at the same time, protecting the individuals of the industry who should not be unnecessaryly harrassed", IT secretary Brijesh Kumar said today.Kumar is heading the review panel set up in January this year and has members including A K Chakravarty, scientist-g, Kiran Karnik, president of Nasscom, Ajay Chowdhry, chairman of HCL Infosystems, Ajit Balakrishnan, CEO of Rediff, and R Ramraj, CEO of Sify.The need for a data protection law has emerged again with the alleged leakage of credit card information by an employee of a Gurgaon-based web marketing firm.In fact, the call for amendment was prompted by the controversy involving the arrest of Baazee.com CEO in December 2004 in a case of sale of a sexually explicit clip on the auction site.Making the Baazee.com case as a reference point, the committee is looking at ways of balancing the rights of enforcement authorities with the rights of those who could be potentially accused.
