Government seeks views of e-commerce companies on data localization

A panel headed by former Executive Vice Chairman of Infosys, Kris Gopalakrishnan had deliberations regarding data localization with companies such as Uber and Ola in October, followed by health and health technology companies.

Kris Gopalakrishnan has now sought the opinions of e-commerce companies such as Amazon, Walmart-owned Flipkart and Snapdeal regarding the same. These companies presented their views on possible data localization, sharing aggregate customer data with the government and potential data portability in a series of meetings. The opinions of the companies on these issues are expected to help the government on framing the upcoming regulations.

The committee is tasked with giving recommendations on regulating non-personal data.

According to a government official, “While everyone has different levels of comfort, no one has so far come forward and said that they will not share data at all with the government.” He also added that the matter was quite complex.

The eight-member panel is looking at ways to regulate community and anonymous e-commerce data in India. Also, various issues related to non-personal data are being considered and the panel shall make specific suggestions that the central government will consider before regulating such data.

The government was assessing the economic value of e-commerce data and should it be available for a larger purpose. It is learnt that they have queried on types of non-personal data and whether it can be personalized, should it be stored or processed within India.