The proposed policy for e-commerce businesses by the government of India cites Data as ‘’National Asset’’ and allows for stringent checks on the flow of funds from overseas. Experts, however, claim that the policy fails to reflect any clear measures as to how it would be done.
“One of the biggest problems of the policy is that it does not have parameters for its implementation. Collation of broad statements is not what good policies are made of,” says cyber expert Pavan Duggal.
The government In its draft e-commerce policy has said that legal and technology framework will be designed to keep a check on cross border data flow and sharing of data with domestic institutions.
.As per the new laws, businesses collecting and utilising sensitive data in India will not be permitted to share it with other businesses, outside the country or with foreign governments without taking permission beforehand.
“I’d say it’s a good start, but the policy needs to look at things from the point of newly emerging technologies and paradigms on electronic commerce, including IoT, blockchain and AI. It does mention the term artificial intelligence, but it doesn’t go beyond that,” adds Duggal
Agreeing with Duggal, a tech policy advocate added, ‘’“AI today can help you predict business outcomes without the requirement of massive amounts of data. Saying that creation of monopolies is linked only to the collection and processing of data is an argument of the last decade,”
