The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has received a letter from the Asia Internet Coalition (AIC), whose members include Meta, Google, Apple, and Microsoft, requesting an extension of the deadline by 12 to 18 months in order to comply with specific provisions under the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023.
The group said that since implementing certain provisions would require structural changes in organizations and businesses, “they are likely to face a significant amount of challenges during the course of such transition” in a letter to Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar. Since GDPR and other data regulations do not have such protections, this effort will be relatively novel to both domestic and international corporate firms.
Therefore, companies would need to make significant adjustments to the technological design of their platform,” the alliance stated in the letter, which was subsequently cited by the media. The government declared this month that organizations in charge of managing personal data, including startups, MSMEs, and hospitals, would have an extension to improve their systems to ensure compliance with the DPDP Act, 2023.
The data protection bill also stipulates fines for social media companies that break rules, with the maximum fine being Rs 250 crore and the minimum being Rs 50 crore. Ensuring the protection of citizen data while promoting responsible growth in digital marketplaces is its fundamental goal.
