Dear, friends.

Happy 73rd Independence Day to all Indian readers, and wishes and greetings to everyone!

In his first written interview to media after beginning his second term, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed government efforts to drive reforms that provide stability to the market and drive investment to make India a business destination. When asked about “data privacy, protection and its commercial exploitation,” the PM responded, “We believe that personal data protection for every single citizen is a must and we are in the process of evolving a framework for the same. We see Right to Personal Data in the Machine Intelligence Age in a manner akin to Right to Private Property at the dawn of Industrial era.” He went on to say, “With its talented youth, growing economy, conducive government and massive market, India can become the hub of data science, analytics and storage.”

This is the first instance that an Indian government official and policy document has discussed the Right to Data akin to property rights. It builds on the draft text of the e-commerce policy (the data section has been removed from the draft policy) in which data ownership was envisioned with the individuals — major laws and regulations do not clearly discuss data ownership globally. The PM Office is also reportedly reviewing data ecosystem policies, including data localization. The focus of government on data related policies is visible, and stakeholders across the spectrum await direction on the Data Protection Bill sets.

Also this week, the Reserve Bank of India released its Enabling Framework for Regulatory Sandbox, which enables live testing of innovative technology and services in the fintech space. It doesn’t provide regulatory waivers, but “customer privacy and data protection” requirements shall “mandatorily be complied” with by applicants. This ensures privacy and data protection requirements are included before the actual rollout.

I’m sharing an interview on differential privacy with NIST Scientist Mary Theofanos that discusses how differential privacy could be used to expose valuable information without exposing personal details.

And the IAPP team is utilizing the LinkedIn Live feature like crazy, with major privacy-related discussions and announcements discussed every few days. As I write this, there’s a discussion about the new CIPT! Get involved, ask questions and engage with us.

Happy freedom!