Data Privacy, Data Piracy: Can India Provide Adequate Protection for Electronically Transferred Data?

摘要

As the wave of outsourcing to India swells, there is growing concern about the inadequacies of the India legal system in protecting data being transferred to it from other nations for the purpose of processing. India has a smattering of laws that scantily address the issue of data privacy. Under pressure from the business processing industry in India, as well as from the European Union and other nations, it is but a matter of time before India adopts a slate of laws that address the issue of data protection. Once these laws are enacted, the main issue that remains is whether the Indian judicial system, rife with inefficiencies, delays and backlog, can prosecute breaches of data privacy in such a manner as to be an effective punitive and compensatory mechanism, or deterrent against future violations.This paper recommends that India adopt a system of specialized courts to address matters related to cyber infringement, including data privacy. Drawing from the experience of specialized courts in alternate jurisdictions, specifically Thailand, the US and Italy, this paper recommends specific features of a specialized ‘Cyber Infringement Court’ system in India.