Comment on India seeks new regulator for nonpersonal data

India should set up a data regulator to oversee how companies collect, process, store, monetize and even destroy nonpersonal data (or data that has been anonymized), a panel tasked by New Delhi has recommended in a draft report. The eight-person panel said that companies such as Google, Facebook, Amazon and Uber have benefited from a combination of “first mover advantage,” “sizable network effect” and “enormous data” that they have collected over the years. This dominance has “left many new entrants and startups being squeezed and faced with significant entry barriers,” said the draft report, which has been made available to industry players for consultation before it is submitted to the nation’s IT ministry next month. New Delhi, which appointed the aforementioned committee last year, has in recent years moved to better understand and control how technology companies make use of data and devise new guidelines for several sectors including e-commerce. India has emerged as battleground for global giants such as Google, Facebook, Amazon and ByteDance that are looking to court hundreds of millions of first-time internet users in Asia’s third-largest economy. Last month, New Delhi banned 59 apps and services developed by Chinese firms citing security and privacy concerns.