Right through the debate on Aadhaar, the absence of a law on data protection found repeated mention. When the Supreme Court weighed in, it set up the Justice B.N. Srikrishna Committee to this specific end.
Finally, the committee’s report and draft law and the government’s Bill in the Lok Sabha have arrived, but how much better off are ordinary folk who have to deal with the authorities on the one hand and powerful private businesses on the other?
Not much better off, says Apar Gupta, executive director of the Internet Freedom Foundation. . .