JPC TO ESTABLISH A STATUTORY MEDIA AUTHORITY (PRESS COUNCIL) TO REGULATE CONTENT ON MEDIA PLATFORMS

All the social media platforms, which do not act as intermediaries, to be treated as publishers and held accountable for content they host and also to fix responsibility for delay in reporting the data breach strongly advocating the need to protect the privacy of individuals, the JPC on personal data protection Bill has asked the centre to take concrete steps to ensure a copy of sensitive and critical personal data in possession of foreign entities be mandatorily brought to India.The JPC was headed by Shri PP Chowdhury.The panel has held that it may not always be easy to distinguish between the non personal and personal data and the proposed authority must consider both with in its ambit and the JPC has called for a mechanism to certify the integrity of hardware equipment.The report also called for an alternative to the SWIFT system of funds transfer, saying that there have been worrying instances of breaches by Chinese lending apps in India with huge implications for privacy of individuals that needs to be reviewed.The committee is of the view that an alternative to SWIFT payment system may be developed in India which will not only ensure privacy, but will also boost to the domestic economy .The JPC also sought the inclusion of hardware manufacturers, who collect data through digital devices, in the law , noting and desired a new sub clause 49(2) (0) may be inserted to enable DPA for framing regulations to regulate hardware manufacturers and related entities It too asserted the need to design and set up a process to unify data across the public sector,private sector and accedemic and the research institutions and the appropriate data access related to the privacy and the owner ship rights .