India Proposes Regulating Cross-Border Data Flow in Draft Policy

(Bloomberg) -- India’s government proposed regulating the cross-border flow of data as it laid down conditions for storing information gathered within the country overseas.

Companies that collect or process any sensitive data in India and store it abroad shouldn’t share it with other businesses, third parties or foreign governments for any purpose even with customers’ consent, according to a draft of a national e-commerce policy that was released Saturday.

“India’s data should be used for the country’s development and Indian citizens and companies should get the economic benefits from the monetization of data,” according to the draft which was posted on the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade’s website.

The draft also suggested restrictions on cross-border flow of data collected from Internet-of-things devices installed at public space, and those generated by users in India through sources including e-commerce platforms, social media and search engines.

A "suitable framework will be developed for sharing of community data that serves larger public interest," while subject to privacy-related issues being addressed, the draft said.

The government aims to develop capacity for data storage in India and recommends giving companies a period of three years to adjust to local data storage requirements.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nupur Acharya in Mumbai at nacharya7@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Divya Balji at dbalji1@bloomberg.net, Shamim Adam, Lianting Tu

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