The Dialogue, on July 31, concluded the first, in a series of Virtual Consultations on Non-Personal Data (NPD) Governance with close to 100 participants. The event included representatives from leading think tanks and civil society organizations, law firms, businesses, industry bodies, researchers.
There were five panels that were thematically arranged for deeper discussions on the challenges within the report. The first session was on “Definition of NPD and key roles in the NPD ecosystem”. This session went into the definitions envisaged in the report. The panelists also dove into issues pertaining to the key roles defined in the NPD ecosystem, particularly on the role of trustees and custodians as key decision-makers in the ecosystem. The second session was on “Rights over data and data ownership”. The panelists discussed nuances of community rights over data, the role of a data trustee in the framework of rights, the conceptualization of community rights, basis of legal rights over data amongst other things. Panelists discussed the possible conflicts with existing IP laws and how future regulation must deal with such issues.
The third session was on “Data sharing and data business”. The panelists discussed the proposed data sharing models, the purposes of data sharing as envisaged, and mechanisms of data sharing. The panel also discussed the potential impact on investments and the possible disruption it will bring to the market if the report is applied in the form it is today. The fourth session was centered around “Interaction with the PDP framework and surveillance concerns”. The panelists opined that with the advent of the report, there is a greater need to discuss the modes of government access to data and the checks and balances that need to be established. In the absence of surveillance law, unfettered access to government bodies for access to data can lead to legitimate surveillance concerns. The session also had discussions based on the privacy concerns that arise in the regulation of NPD derived from personal data, market effect of unfettered government access to data. The fifth session was on “Regulatory Challenges and Harmonization of laws”. This session discussed harmonization of the powers of the regulators such as DPA, NPDA, and CCI. It also had some thought-provoking conversations surrounding the regulatory challenges that could crop up with the establishment of the NPDA.
