{"id":31497,"date":"2025-03-27T01:47:08","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T20:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=31497"},"modified":"2025-04-16T12:25:51","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T06:55:51","slug":"section-443-of-new-data-protection-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/section-443-of-new-data-protection-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Section 44(3) of New Data Protection Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Section 44(3) of New Data Protection Law Latest News<\/h2>\n<p>Concerns Over Section 44(3) of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act<\/p>\n<h2>Why in the News?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Section 44(3) of the DPDP Act, 2023<\/strong> has sparked controversy as activists claim it <strong>weakens the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Congress leader Jairam Ramesh<\/strong> has urged the <strong>Minister of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to repeal<\/strong> this provision, arguing that it would <strong>&#8220;destroy&#8221; the RTI Act<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>RTI activists<\/strong>, including <strong>Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey, Prashant Bhushan, and Anjali Bhardwaj<\/strong>, have <strong>opposed the amendment<\/strong>, warning that it could <strong>restrict access to critical public information<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What is Section 44(3) of the DPDP Act?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>DPDP Act, 2023<\/strong>, received <strong>Presidential assent on August 11, 2023<\/strong> and aims to <strong>regulate digital personal data processing while balancing individual privacy rights with lawful data processing needs<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Section 44(3)<\/strong> amends <strong>Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, 2005<\/strong>, <strong>expanding the scope of denying information<\/strong> under the pretext of <strong>protecting personal data<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Change:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Previous Section 8(1)(j) (RTI Act):<\/strong> Allowed exemption from disclosure <strong>only if the personal information was unrelated to public interest or caused unwarranted privacy invasion<\/strong>, unless <strong>larger public interest justified disclosure<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Revised Section 8(1)(j) (DPDP Act):This removes the \u201clarger public interest\u201d clause<\/strong> and <strong>broadly exempts all personal information<\/strong> from disclosure under RTI.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How Could This Affect RTI Requests?<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"table\">\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><strong>Before DPDP Act (RTI Act &#8211; Section 8(1)(j))<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p><strong>After DPDP Act (Section 44(3))<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>Personal information <strong>could be disclosed if public interest justified it<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p><strong>All personal information is exempt from disclosure<\/strong>, regardless of public interest.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>Example: A citizen could request details of <strong>public officials\u2019 assets<\/strong> if corruption was suspected.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>Example: Such a request <strong>can now be denied<\/strong>, citing personal data protection.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>The <strong>balance between privacy and transparency<\/strong> was determined case-by-case.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p><strong>Blanket exemption for personal data<\/strong>, even if it concerns public officials.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n<h2>Section 44(3) of New Data Protection Law FAQs<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q1. <\/strong>What does Section 44(3) of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act state?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans.<\/strong> It allows the government to exempt certain agencies from data protection rules in matters of national security, sovereignty, or public order.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q2. <\/strong>Why is Section 44(3) controversial?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans.<\/strong> Critics argue it gives the government broad powers to bypass data privacy regulations, raising concerns over surveillance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q3. <\/strong>How does Section 44(3) impact individual privacy?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans.<\/strong> It may weaken personal data protection, as certain agencies can access data without user consent.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q4. <\/strong>How does this section compare with global data protection laws?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans.<\/strong> Countries like the EU (GDPR) have stricter oversight on government exemptions, ensuring privacy rights.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/why-activists-are-worried-about-section-443-of-new-data-protection-law-9908168\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The DPDP Act, 2023, regulates digital personal data processing, ensuring privacy protection while balancing lawful data usage. Received assent on August 11, 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":31498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-31497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}