General Data Protection Regulation
Also called: GDPR · Topic: Transparency, Accountability and e-Governance · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the European Union's law that protects people's personal data. It sets rules for how companies and governments may collect, use and store information about a person. It is widely treated as the leading model of data privacy law around the world. One of its features is a journalism derogation, which means a special exception for journalism. This lets reporters handle personal data for news work, so privacy does not choke press freedom. For India, the GDPR is mainly a point of comparison when judging its own data protection law.
Example
India's draft data protection bills of 2018, 2019 and 2021 all had a journalistic exemption, like the GDPR's. The final Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 dropped it. Only research, archiving and statistical work stayed exempt. This is why the Digital News Publishers Association has gone to the Supreme Court, saying the Act has a "chilling effect" (it makes the press afraid to report). Critics point to the GDPR as proof that a law can protect privacy and still leave room for the press.
Don't confuse with
- Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023: this is India's own law, enforced by the Data Protection Board of India. Unlike the GDPR, it has no exemption for journalism.