Voicing concern over the draft Data Protection Act-2022, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) fears that it could become 'another black law' through establishing administrative control in the name of personal protection.
At a virtual discussion on its evaluation of the proposed act, the Berlin-based human rights watchdog also pointed out that there are inconsistencies, loopholes, and redundancies in some provisions of the draft that could allow many parties to misuse the act like digital security act-2018.
It demanded immediate measures to bring necessary amendments to the draft through consultations with the stakeholders to make it a proper personal data protection law.
In a power-point presentation, TIB director (outreach and communication) Sheikh Manjur-E-Alam said as the draft doesn't contain any definition of personal information, it could be misused by many parties.
In the draft, he said, the digital protection agency formed under the digital security act-2018 has been given absolute power as personal data protection controller.
As per the draft, the agency can take any actions for the sake of implementing the law. The more concerning part is that no provision of going to the court by affected person against the misuse of power of director general of the digital security agency has been included, he said.
Rather, indemnity has been given for them, he said.
"This will lead this law to become another black law and a large number of people will be subjected to unpreventable harassment due to the misuse of this law," Mr. Alam said.
Currently, 137 nations in the world have their own data protection act.
TIB said there is no mention on how personal information will get processed and the consent of the data subject is mostly ignored. This issue has been included in the draft law in a vague and haphazard manner whereas this is an issue of paramount importance in many countries of the world.
TIB executive director Dr. Iftekharuzzaman said the way the draft was formulated, it would undoubtedly create the risk of establishing administrative control over the people in the name of personal data protection.
Simultaneously, he said, the law doesn't address definitions of many important terminologies, which is very risky.
The law also authorises police to investigate such intricate issues whereas their expertise may come into question to deal with such issues.
Mentioning some recent 'controversial' acts like ICT Act-2006 and Digital Security Act-2018, he said if the draft is passed, it could turn the nation into a surveillance-based country.
The TIB executive director suggested evaluating the draft and sitting with the stakeholders having enough knowledge about the sensitive issues before finalisation of the draft.
Dr. Mohammad Ershadul Karim, senior lecturer (faculty of law) at the University of Malaya of Malaysia, said there is a need for a specialised agency like Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for overseeing the activities.
