TRAI favors defining responsibility of stakeholders for data protection

Mr. R S Sharma, Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), said that TRAI was committed to data protection and was in favor of defining the responsibility of various stakeholders in the value chain to ensure that customers' data is safeguarded.

TRAI Chairman said that information privacy, security and data ownership, needed to be defined. He added that TRAI followed the process of consultations and formulated policies or issued any mandate. Only after seeking views and conducting open houses with industry and relevant stakeholders, TRAI would finalize any policy going forward as well. He added that several consultation papers were out in the public domain for recommendations and suggestions.

Addressing the issue of data ownership, Mr. Sharma said that there was asymmetry of information. In most of the cases, the users were not even aware of the long term consequences of sharing data and how it could be misused. There was also the issue of bounded rationality and instances have come to light where the privacy policy of a service provider seeks the right to use the data of the customer in any form.

Speaking on net neutrality, Mr. Sharma said that net neutrality calls for access to internet content without any discrimination in data speed and cost and TRAI will come out with its views on net neutrality very soon. He added that digital consent and blockchain were emerging trends and suggested that there should be a provision for data portability as well.

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