IT Min on PDP Bill: Govt committed to protecting privacy of individuals

The government is fully committed to protecting privacy of individuals, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Tuesday, asserting that the proposed data protection Bill will further strengthen the legal framework around privacy.

The minister, however, did not comment on concerns raised by some opposition MPs who gave dissent notes to the Joint Committee of Parliament on Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill, after the panel adopted its report at its meeting on Monday.

Asked about the concerns raised over certain provisions of the Bill, the minister said, “the Joint Committee of Parliament has completed their deliberations, they will be presenting….report to Parliament…then only one should comment.”

The government is “very” committed to protecting the privacy of citizens and residents, he emphasised.

The concerns which were raised earlier on Aadhaar have already been addressed “meticulously”, he said speaking at the inauguration of three-day workshop ‘Aadhaar 2.0’.

“The concerns which were there (on Aadhaar) have already been addressed very meticulously, through a very long process in which the Supreme Court judgement came, a lot of regulations have been made. Those things have been settled. The data protection Bill will further strengthen that legal framework,” Vaishnaw said. PTI