India will approach the European Union seeking ‘adequacy’ status with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) once the country finalises and passes its own Personal Data Protection Bill, two people familiar with the matter said.The reciprocal recognition of data protection equivalency is expected to reduce the compliance burden and give the outsourcing and technology industry a leg-up in attracting clients from Europe.“Adequacy means we recognise each other’s privacy protections. This will help all industries,” said a senior government official.The EU Commission and Japan signed a similar deal of equivalency to enable safe data transfers, based on a high level of protection of personal data.As a result, all data transfers from the EU to Japan will be protected by the same guarantees that apply under the GDPR. The EU has so far signed adequacy agreements with 13 countries, including Canada and New Zealand. “Adequacy gives EU companies comfort in sending data to India. It provides automatic compliance and helps bolsters IT offshoring capability of Indian companies,” said Nikhil Narendran, partner of legal firm Trilegal. While compliance requirements of the data protection legislation will initially increase costs, it will equip India to become a responsible global digital hub in the long run, he said.Entities operating in the EU or even outside the bloc have had to significantly adjust their businesses if they hold, process or transact with data of EU nationals. This involves rewriting contracts with customers as well as service providers. The Indian information technology and IT-enabled services industry has been the most affected by the new law since it derives almost 30% of its revenues from Europe.“Adequacy helps in better data transfers, removes barriers to outsourcing and makes it easier for enterprises. It gives comfort to companies given there is an agreement at the country level,” said Rama Vedashree, CEO at Data Security Council of India.
from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2YfQ8cz
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