New privacy Bill: Data Protection Authority, jail term for offence

Rattled by leakage of authorised and non-authorised phone taps, the UPA government is planning to set up a three-member Data Protection Authority of India, whose main functions would include monitoring and enforcing compliance of the proposed data protection laws and to “investigate any data security breach”.
The authority is just one of the many measures aimed at “safeguarding the security interests of all affected individuals in the personal data that has or is likely to have been compromised by such a breach” under the Right to Privacy Bill, 2011.
The Act proposes a maximum punishment of five years and/or fine of Rs 7 lakh for the first offence and Rs 10 lakh for every subsequent offence.
The Bill, a copy of which is with The Sunday Express, proposes to put in place a system to protect not just the privacy of an individual and secure all intercepted material, including phone taps, but also his “honour and good name”. The proposed law also aims to empower an individual or group of individuals to take legal recourse to protect the “confidentiality of his private or family life”; seek protection from “search, detention or exposure of lawful communication”: have privacy from surveillance: ensure confidentiality of his banking and financial transactions as well as his/her medical and legal information.