--- layout: default title: "Civil Society Pushes for Privacy Panel" description: "A Times of India report on civil society organisations advocating for a privacy commission in India, with commentary from Sunil Abraham on NETmundial and the need for national privacy regulation." categories: [Media mentions] date: 2014-05-06 source: "The Times of India" authors: ["Laxmi Ajai Prasanna"] permalink: /media/civil-society-pushes-for-privacy-panel/ created: 2026-03-21 --- **Civil Society Pushes for Privacy Panel** is a report published in *The Times of India* on 6 May 2014, written by Laxmi Ajai Prasanna. The piece covers civil society organisations' calls for a dedicated privacy commission in India, following their participation in the NETmundial conference in Brazil. [Sunil Abraham](/sunil/) features in the report, describing the conference as a step towards a multi-stakeholder model for internet governance and calling for national privacy legislation with an independent oversight body. ## Contents 1. [Article Details](#article-details) 2. [Full Text](#full-text) 3. [Context and Background](#context-and-background) ## Article Details
📰 Published in:
The Times of India
👤 Author:
Laxmi Ajai Prasanna
📅 Date:
6 May 2014
📄 Type:
News Report
📰 Newspaper Link:
Not available online
## Full Text
Newspaper clipping of 'Civil Society Pushes for Privacy Panel' from The Times of India, discussing calls for a privacy commission and data protection in India.
Newspaper clipping of the article "Civil Society Pushes for Privacy Panel" published in The Times of India.

Thiruvananthapuram: Civil society organizations are pushing for a 'privacy commission' to provide protection to individuals from illegal breach of their privacy, with guidelines imposing penal sanction against the violators.

This assumes significance at a time when the Centre has decided to set up a judicial panel to probe the snoopgate scandal wherein the BJP government in Gujarat was allegedly involved in illegal surveillance of a woman architect and especially when the Right to Privacy Bill is pending in Parliament.

However, industry consortia, including CII and Ficci, prefer lesser regulation, though calling for a cautious approach.

Among civil society organizations pressing for a stringent privacy bill is the International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS), the only representative from Kerala to attend the NETmundial conference held recently in Brazil. The meet focused on privacy issues to ensure basic human rights, including freedom of expression.

PREVENTION OF DATA MISUSE

"NETmundial is the first step towards pushing for a privacy law against the snooping and spying on individuals by those in power, including agencies within and outside the country. Privacy guidelines should be clear as to what data can be collected without infringing on the dignity of an individual as 'data' represents the duration of a call, while 'metadata' reveals the content of the call," said ICFOSS director Satish Babu.

Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), another NETmundial participant, also stands for a strong privacy law. "The two-day conference that concluded on April 24 was a baby step towards a privacy law with a road map for global internet governance. It is the first step towards a multi-stakeholder model offering an equal footing for all civil society organizations, academia, government, private sector and the UN fora," said CIS executive director Sunil Abraham.

"We are pushing for a privacy law in the country aimed at national privacy regulation and constituting a privacy commission on the lines of the information commission," he added.

However, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Kerala, vice-chairman Hari Krishnan R Nair said, "Before making a database of the residents and collating it, voicing for norms will be like putting the cart before the horse. Though sensitive personal and biometric data, including fingerprint and iris scan, is collected for an Aadhaar card, it should be tempered at the right level with caution to prevent misuse."

While using technology to map data for national security and to prevent terror attacks, data verification should be through a proper caveat by a credible agency ensuring precautions by the government, he said.

Though calling for a cautious approach to prevent data misuse, an official at Ficci said that ensuring a proper database of the residents in the country will help ease the recruitment process in the industry and prevent hassles involved in police verification of an individual before enrolment.

{% include back-to-top.html %} ## Context and Background NETmundial, held in São Paulo in April 2014, was a one-off global conference on internet governance convened amid global concern following revelations about mass surveillance by the US National Security Agency, made public through Edward Snowden's disclosures in 2013. The conference brought together governments, civil society, the private sector, and technical community representatives to discuss principles for internet governance and a roadmap for its future. The article was published at a moment when privacy had moved sharply up the Indian policy agenda. The "snoopgate" controversy — involving alleged surveillance of a woman architect in Gujarat at the direction of state officials — had drawn attention to the absence of legal safeguards against executive misuse of surveillance powers. Meanwhile, the Right to Privacy Bill had been pending in Parliament without passage for several years. The divergence between civil society and industry positions reflected a broader tension in Indian data governance discussions: whether privacy regulation should prioritise individual rights and enforcement mechanisms, or be calibrated primarily around enabling data collection for administrative and commercial purposes. This tension persisted well beyond 2014 and shaped subsequent debates around the Personal Data Protection Bill.