Data Division Debate

In how many ways can you divide data ?

That is the question

Context :

Panel to ready white paper on non-personal data post talks  

Data Protection Bill talks of following  “ types of data “ :

[ A ] “ Umbrella Group “ consisting of data from which a person can be identified

[ B ] “ Sensitive Personal Data “ consisting of financial , health, sexual orientation,

         biometric, genetic, transgender status, caste, religious belief, passwords  etc

[ C ] “ Critical Personal Data “ such as military/national security data [ to be defined ]

[ D ]  “ Non-Personal Data “

[ E ] “ Anonymized Personal Data “

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 Neat ?   Hardly !

I urge the officers who drafted this bill to label  “ which data is what type “  in the following tabulation

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Srl No	Data	A	B	C	D	E
1	Who I am ( name / gendre )
2	Where and when, I was born / who were my parents
3	Where I grew up / where I live currently
4	Do I live in a rented place or in an owned flat
5	What Schools / Colleges I attended ( - and degrees I acquired )
6	What Companies I worked for and salaries I got
7	How I travel to work ( own vehicle or public transport )
8	Where I go for my holidays / what books I read
9	Who I married and who are my children ( - and how many )
10	If divorced , how much alimony I pay and to whom
11	Where I invest my money ( Banks – Funds – Equity etc )
12	How much I have borrowed from whom and for how long
13	My Credit ranking  ( including my spending history / card wise – wallet wise )
14	What are my eating ( food ) preferences and the restaurants I visit
15	What I do for entertainment ( Music / Movies / Videos ) [ life-long cultural activity history ]
16	What clothes I wear and how often do I buy
17	Who are my friends and how often I phone / text them / meet them
18	What ailments I suffer from and what medicines I take ( complete life-long medical history )
19	What minor offences ( traffic ) or crimes that I have committed
20	What elections I have contested ( won and lost )
21	Who are my doctors / lawyers / brokers / agents
22	What web sites I visit and how often and for how long ( Social Media engagement )
23	What do I search on the Net / What RSS feeds I subscribe to
24	What TV channels I watch and Radio Stations that I listen to
25	Every photo of mine ever taken ( selfie or otherwise )
26	Every phone call that I ever made or received
27	Every Email / Text message that I ever sent or received
28	Every blog / comment that I ever posted on the Web
29	Ev Every face-to-face communication that I engaged in
30	Languages Spoken
31	Every E-Com site visited and every item ordered
32	Every banking transaction
33	Every digital payment transaction
34	Every mobile app downloaded
35	Complete list of my online/offline Service Providers
36	List of IoT enabled / plain , gadgets in my house
37	DBT Scheme benefits enjoyed
38

Is it possible that each of the above-listed item ( - this list is far from being comprehensive ), may be interpreted differently { A – B – C – D – E } , by :

Ø  Citizen involved in litigation under the proposed Data Protection Law

Ø  Millions of lawyers

Ø  Thousands of Judges

Apart from this “ Matter of Interpretation “ of DATA  TYPE , there is also the question of :

Ø      Nature of Content

·         WHO created

·         WHEN created

·         WHERE created

·         HOW created

·         HOW transmitted / circulated

·         HOW transformed ( “Speech to Text “ is so yesterday transformation )

·         To WHOM sold

·         HOW used

·         WHEN compiled

·         WHO compiled

·         WHERE stored

And also the question of everyone ( concerned with litigation ), agreeing with the correct

definition of the following words used in the Data Protection Law :

#   Private

#   Data

#   App

#   Permission

#   Access

#   Download

#   Sign

#   Rights

#   Own

#   Personal

#   Share

#   Entity

#   Processing

#   Obligation

#   Handling

#   Collection

#   Use

Are we about to enact a law which , on one hand, is not implementable and on the other hand , might lead to unending litigation ?

Dear Shri RaviShankar Prasadji,

It may not be too late to rethink the whole matter

With regards,

Hemen Parekh

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Related Reading :

Data Privacy Law : a Pandora’s Box ?                         [ 15 July 2018 ]