Angel investor and noted columnist Lloyd Mathias on Wednesday said the government must put in place a simpler process for hardware testing in the revised Data Protection Bill 2019, warning that needless overregulation may end up harming the consumer-tech sector. He was speaking at a panel discussion on “Data Protection Bill Hardware Regulations And Cross-Border Data Flow” on The Plunge Daily Spaces.
“Having multi-levels of security clearances and testing will not only cause inconvenience to manufacturers and consumers but it will possibly add cost to it. The Data protection bill started with regulation of personal data then its ambit was expanded to include non-personal data and now by including the provision for testing of devices, we are adding another layer to it.”
Warning that the consumers may end up bearing the extra cost of a complex regulatory framework, he said, “The obvious fallout could be the manufacturers passing on the incremental cost to consumers. In a competitive environment, some of this will get absorbed but we must focus on streamlining the process so that it don’t make things difficult for the value chain.”
“The mandatory testing and certification are important to check security flaws but this inclusion can cause conflict of interest. There is already an existing regulatory framework (Bureau of Standards) to check hardware devices. So, are we over-regulating this sector in the name of national security? If yes, it will create hurdles for existing players in the sector,”
Mathias stressed the need for enhanced security in terms of data privacy and hardware devices in the fastly-evolving tech landscape while adding that multiple regulatory checks will increase compliance burden on manufacturers.
“We are all aligned to the fact that we clearly need enhanced security both at the individual level for data privacy and security checks for hardware devices. At the same time, Multiple regulations around the same issue don’t help. They just add on to the compliance burden which is not desirable.”
Also Read:_Amazon offers up to 50 pc discount on Prime membership for select users
Maithias pointed out that several Chinese apps which were banned by the government in 2020, rebranded themselves and found their way back on Indian smartphones.
“Two years back, when we banned the first set of Chinese apps, a lot of them came back with minor tweaks. Some of them are still in play. So, we need to assess the extent of execution rigour that’s going to be there so that it doesn’t penalise hardware manufacturers and add cost to consumers,”
“We need a clear call for simplicity so that there should be no duplication in the regulation process and a clearer communication with hardware manufacturers in terms of what is the end-desire of this whole exercise. The Bill in its current form adds a lot of complexity without significantly adding the aspects of India’s security,” he added.
