– The lower house of India’s parliament voted in approval of a bill that would ease data compliance regulations for Big Tech companies on Aug. 7.
– The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 would ease storage, processing, and transfer standards for major global tech companies like Google, Meta, and Microsoft, as well as local firms seeking international expansion.
– The legislation allows companies to export data sourced from India, except to countries prohibited by the government.
– The bill currently requires government consent prior to Big Tech companies collecting personal data and prevents them from selling it for reasons not listed in the contract, meaning no anonymization of personal data for use in artificial intelligence (AI) training, for example.
– These updates to the bill would reduce compliance requirements for companies, though it has to pass through the upper parliamentary house.
– India is the world’s most populous country, with billions of internet users, making it a key market for growth.
Concerns over data misuse in the emerging tech industry, particularly from Big Tech companies, have been a growing priority for regulators across the globe.
– The rapid emergence of AI as an accessible tool has raised concerns among regulators about the collection and utilization of user data.
– India is reportedly collaborating with the administration of United States President Joe Biden to create an international framework for AI.
One recent major development in the emerging tech scene that has raised concerns over data collection is the launch of the decentralized digital identity verification protocol Worldcoin.
– The project has launched 1,500 of its iris-scanning Orbs in countries around the world, including two in India.
