Passenger sues Air India for personal data breach: What happens now

India lacks a mechanism for compensation or redress of consumers in such cases, say experts

On Sunday, an Air India flyer sent a legal notice to the airline seeking damages of Rs 30 lakh for the breach of personal data of 4.5 million passengers, including her husband and herself. Air India had informed the complainant of the data leak a month earlier, after it emerged that its passenger service system provider fell prey to a cyberattack in February.

However, in the absence of a data prot­ec­tion law, India lacks a mechanism for compensation or grievance redress of consumers in such cases, say experts.

Advocate Virag Gupta, a New Delhi-based cyber law expert, explains that a