Current Affairs Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination

Topic: Action of Parliamentary Committee Report on Data Protection

Why in News?

• The e-commerce giant Amazon, first declined to depose before the Joint Committee of Parliament that is examining the draft Data Protection Bill, then after the report that Amazon’s “refusal” amounts to a breach of parliamentary privilege, and the panel was unanimous about taking “coercive action” if no one from the company appears, then Amazon’s top executives deposed before the committee and were questioned about the company’s revenue model and how much tax it pays in the country.

Parliamentary Committee

• The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 as introduced in Lok Sabha has been referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee of both the Houses, under the Chairperson of Smt. Meenakashi Lekhi.
• The bill seeks to provide for protection of personal data of individuals and establishment of a data protection authority for the same.
• Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, Google and Paytm are among the companies from whom the committee has sought views on data security and protection amid concerns that the privacy of users is being “compromised” for commercial interest.
• While representatives of telecom operators Reliance Jio and Airtel and cab aggregators Ola and Uber have been asked to appear before it.

Probing Amazon

• Members questioned the e-commerce major about its revenue mode, how much revenue it generates and what per cent of it, Amazon reinvests in India. The panel also asked questions about how much tax it pays in India.
• The committee asked Amazon to give answers to these questions in writing, signed by its top-most officials.

Facebook under Scanner

• Facebook India executives were asked whether they obtain the consent of its users before their data is shared with third parties.
• Facebook does sell data but arrived at inferences based on user behaviour.
• Members of the parliamentary panel, cutting across party lines, also asked the social media giant about its decision-making process, revenue model, method of paying taxes, advertisers and the process of choosing target audience for these advertisers, background verification of its users including the process to find out the age of a new user.
• During the meeting, a member suggested Facebook India should not share ‘inferential data’ of its users for commercial benefits of its advertisers.

Twitter Row

• A parliamentary committee came down heavily on Twitter for showing Ladakh as part of China, saying it amounted to treason and an explanation must be tendered by the US-based parent of the social media platform in form of an affidavit.
• Appearing before the joint committee of parliament on Data Protection Bill, representatives of Twitter India “begged apology”.
• The Indian government on October 22 had warned Twitter about its location setting that showed Leh in China, saying any disrespect towards the country's sovereignty and integrity is totally unacceptable.

Questioning Other Service Providers

• JPC has questioned representatives of Paytm and Google over the Data Protection Bill, 2019 and issues related to privacy in India.
• According to reports, both companies were asked about the revenue they earn in India and the extent of Chinese investment in the companies.
• The panel questioned Paytm representatives about the quantum of Chinese investment in the company and told them that the servers on which customer data is stored should be in India.
• Questions were also raised about the possible conflict of interest considering that Paytm also sells its own products on its e-commerce platform.