Protecting data: Cos face steeper fines

Sanjay Anand / TNN / Oct 6, 2006, 01:27 IST

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The government is expected to fix stricter fines for companies failing to protect data than was being proposed earlier.

NEW DELHI: Stung by yet another sting operation by a British TV channel, which reportedly exposes vulnerability of data and ID security at India's call centres, the government is expected to fix stricter fines for companies failing to protect data than was being proposed earlier.
Firms and individuals will now be booked for civil and criminal liabilities for failing to plug information leakages and stealing personal data.Officials familiar with the new proposals said implementation and imposition of fines would be made more stringent. For instance, the fine limit on firms would be enhanced to 5 crore as against Rs 1 crore now.
A ministry official said the amendments would include new rules that would "provide for the responsibility on the body corporate and companies to adequately protect sensitive data or information which they own, possess, control or operate."
The proposals are expected to be incorporated in the IT Act 2000, which is being amended to fight a new set of cyber crimes like child pornography, ID, data security and video voyeurism.

IT ministry officials have been 'fine-tuning' the amendments for over a year but are ready now to finally sent them to the Cabinet for approval, so that the amended act could be cleared by Parliament this winter session.
Although IT industry representatives have been pushing for the amendments to take effect, government has taken more time than was initially expected to get the new act cleared. Now, under pressure from the IT industry as well as doubts raised about the security of personal data/identity (credit cards, passport numbers and driving licence details etc.) of people calling BPOs in India, IT ministry is pushing the amendments to the cabinet with a sense of urgency.

Nasscom president Kiran Karnik welcomed the stringent norms and said: "We want those things to happen quickly." Some experts, however, said the government needs to do more. "We need to go beyond raising the penalty limits," said cyber lawyer Pavan Duggal. "All this will be too little, too late."
He expressed concern over the implementation of rules. He said over the past six years, not a single case of compensation has been closed. The government, he said, needed to put legal experts in place for adjudication, and not bureaucrats as is the case at present.

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