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America's major tech companies are pushing back against India's proposed data protection laws, with a lobby group led by ex-Cisco CEO John Chambers emerging as the protest organiser.
The move came a week after the proposals, first published at the end of July, were opened for comment by the Ministry of IT.
The draft copped criticism when it was published because of its "data localisation" provisions, which demanded local storage for some citizen data; and for banning the re-identification of anonymised data without offering protections for security researchers trying to improve security of anonymised data sets.
Last week, India's IT minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said he had asked Amazon to set up servers in the country, to comply with the localisation requirements.
Prasad announced the move in a press conference, according to Entrackr, saying he was concerned at data being moved offshore without the consent of end users.
Reuters yesterday reported that companies including Amazon, Microsoft, and American Express want the issue raised at US-India trade talks in September.
The report quoted Mozilla global policy adviser Amba Kak as saying the issue is worth national-level negotiation, adding: "Data localisation is not just a business concern, it potentially makes government surveillance easier, which is a worry."
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @02:16PM (5 children)
Is this really a big deal? This is very similar China's data localization requirements and all of the big tech companies complied. If you want to do business in <insert name of country here> then you have to comply with their laws no matter how worrisome those laws may be. Either give up on the market or give up control of the data, the choice is yours.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday August 22 2018, @02:21PM (2 children)
Yes, but India is a democratic country, so lobbying and a bit of trade pressure should result in more relaxed business conditions.
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @02:49PM (1 child)
But India is starting to feel its balls under Modi. What is his take on US forced sanctions against Iran by the way?
MIGA!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @03:13PM
Isn't usually India referred to as a "Mother" by the nationalists? Somehow like in "Mother India"?
'Cause if it is, the conjured imagery by the above is a bit... disturbing.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @02:43PM
But we are the USA - we have the right to rape whoever's data we choose.
That is why we voted Chump!
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday August 22 2018, @03:26PM
Either of those options costs these companies money, so they're opting for door #3: Whine and complain and bribe and cajole in the hopes of getting the government of India to change its mind.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.