Trade body representing Big Tech concerned with removal of ‘deemed consent’ from data protection bill

The industry body said that it supports the framework's introduction of a clear and flexible approach to international data flows.

Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), a US-based global trade body representing tech companies like Google, Amazon, Apple and others has questioned the removal of the deemed consent provision from the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill that was tabled in the Parliament on August 3.

In the current version of the bill the provision of "deemed consent", which was first introduced in the 2022 version of the DPDP bill, has been replaced with "certain legitimate uses" where a platform can process data of a person.

In a statement, Kumar Deep Banerjee, country director of ITI said, "While we appreciate the improved data flow language, we were concerned to see the removal of the deemed consent provision, which is critical to provide a basis for processing personal data to enable the proper functioning of different types of digital services."

"Further work is needed to ensure the framework provides clear legal grounds for businesses to process data where consent is not possible or technically feasible, such as prevention of fraud, ensuring high network security, and other essential business activities," Banerjee said.

On August 3, Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw introduced the DPDP Bill 2023 in Parliament amid protests from Opposition MPs, who alleged that the bill was against the Right To Privacy.

The industry body said that it supports the framework's introduction of a clear and flexible approach to international data flows. "(We) look forward to contributing to a robust, multi-stakeholder rulemaking process to address outstanding concerns," he added.

The other members of ITI include Meta, Microsoft, Intel, Zoom, Snap Inc., IBM, Cisco, Adobe etc.