Protecting data privacy

The new Bill, though better, gives govt too much discretion

A fourth draft of the long-awaited personal data Bill, now called the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, has been released for public comment. This has some positive suggestions and it plugs some loopholes, making it an improvement on prior iterations. But it continues to suffer from broad provisions enabling mass surveillance. It introduces the concept of fining data-owners (“data principals”) for some offences, and imposes unrealistically high penalties upon data processors and fiduciaries. It has only about one-third the clauses of the prior versions, with the promise of a follow-up drafting of rules to more closely define the legal