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Background
Enacted in 2023, India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA) is a landmark in the country's digital regulation landscape. It establishes a citizen-centric framework for responsible personal data stewardship. The newly notified DPDP Rules, 20251 , provide actionable clarity for both public-and private-sector entities, focusing on practical compliance, ethical processing, and risk minimization. Together, these rules elevate privacy from a conceptual right to an operational standard, embedding oversight and transparency into every data-driven process.
Applicability of DPDPA
The DPDPA, 2023, applies to all public- and private-sector entities that process digital personal data within India's territory, including personal data originally collected ofine but subsequently digitized. It also extends to foreign organizations offering goods or services to individuals located in India.
Essential Roles Outlined in the DPDPA
- Data Principal: Any person whose data is being processed is empowered with rights to information, correction, and erasure.
- Data Fiduciary: The entity that determines the purpose and methods for processing personal data and bears primary accountability for compliance.
- Consent Manager: A registered platform enabling individuals' granular control over permissions and withdrawals.
- Significant Data Fiduciary (SDF): Entities with large digital footprints or handling sensitive information; subject to advanced risk, audits, and impact obligations.
- Data Protection Officer (DPO): The designated individual responsible for implementing data protection strategy and ensuring organizational compliance with the DPDPA and its rules.
- Data Protection Board of India (DPB): The statutory body established under Section 18 to enforce the Act and adjudicate breaches.
Key Actions for Organizations
- Understand Applicability and Scope: Determine whether your organization qualifies as a Data Fiduciary or Signifcant Data Fiduciary and map obligations under the Act.
- Establish a Governance Framework: Define a clear governance structure for data protection. Appoint a DPO or Privacy Lead, delineate roles and responsibilities, and implement internal policies for accountability and oversight.
- Conduct Data Mapping and Gap Assessment: Identify and map personal data collected, stored, or shared across systems. Perform a gap analysis against DPDPA requirements to pinpoint remediation needs.
- Update Privacy Notices and Consent Mechanisms: Draft clear, multilingual privacy notices and deploy verifiable consent systems with easy withdrawal options.
- Strengthen Security Safeguards: Adopt robust technical and organizational measures such as encryption, access restrictions, and continuous monitoring. Maintain audit logs for a minimum of one year and ensure breach notifications within 72 hours as per rule 6.
- Review and Update Third-Party Contracts: Evaluate agreements with vendors and partners to ensure compliance with DPDPA obligations. Include clauses addressing data security, breach reporting, and lawful processing.
- Initiate Employee Training and Awareness: Conduct regular training to build awareness of DPDPA responsibilities, breach-response protocols, and secure data-handling practices.
- Develop a Data Breach Response Plan: Establish incident-response playbooks to notify affected individuals and report breaches to the Board within 72 hours.
Our Service Offerings
A&M's Privacy and Data Compliance experts advise and support leading organisations across all aspects of data compliance and privacy risk management. We help clients navigate complex local and international privacy rules and data laws, particularly in areas such as technology innovation, data strategy and digital services, including:
- Global Privacy Programme Management: Guiding senior management in designing, implementing, and enhancing the organisation's privacy function.
- Privacy Strategy and Governance: Conducting ongoing policy and regulatory horizon scanning, and designing and implementing privacy frameworks, policies and procedures.
- DPO as a Service: Providing professional support to ensure effective management of privacy and personal data protection in accordance with applicable legislation and best international practices.
- Privacy Office Advisory Support: Providing interim advisory support to implement, refine and deliver programme activities through to business-as-usual transition.
- International Data Transfer Strategy Support: Providing advisory and implementation support to identify, risk-assess and rationalise cross-border data flows in line with legal and business objectives.
- Privacy Transaction Services: Providing privacy due diligence support for corporate transactions, integrating data privacy functions, and aligning privacy governance with business and technology objectives.
- Privacy Technology Advisory: Privacy technology integration and support across a wide range of commercially available privacy tools and technologies.
- Technology, Transformation and Innovation: Managing privacy and data-compliance requirements associated with deploying new technologies and data innovation initiatives.
Footnotes
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
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