Give Every Citizen Control Over Their Personal Data

As India digitizes banking, healthcare, education, government services, shopping, travel, and everyday communication, it collects and processes enormous amounts of personal information.

A citizen may have provided their identity, address, phone number, financial information, or other personal data to dozens—or hundreds—of organizations over many years.

But most people cannot easily answer basic questions:

Who has my data?
What information do they have?
Why are they using it?
Who have they shared it with?
How long will they keep it?
What did I consent to?
How do I withdraw that consent?

Without this visibility, “consent” can become little more than clicking I Agree on a lengthy notice.

India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act establishes rights and obligations around processing digital personal data, while the 2025 Rules require consent notices to explain the personal data collected and the purposes for which it will be used. The framework also provides for registered Consent Managers through which individuals can give, manage, review, and withdraw consent.

The opportunity is to turn these principles into a simple citizen-facing system of control.

Create a common Personal Data and Consent Dashboard standard that allows citizens to see and manage how participating organizations use their personal information.

Instead of navigating dozens of privacy policies and settings, citizens should increasingly be able to see:

– which organizations hold their personal data;
– what categories of information they hold;
– the stated purpose for using it;
– what permissions the citizen has granted;
– when consent was provided;
– whether consent remains active;
– how to withdraw consent;
– how to request correction or deletion where legally applicable; and
– where to complain if their rights are not respected.

India’s DPDP framework already anticipates interoperable Consent Managers. The reform should use that foundation to make data control understandable and practical for ordinary citizens, rather than creating another unrelated government portal.

Make Privacy the Default, Not an Additional Setting

Organizations should follow a simple principle:

Collect only what is necessary → Use it only for the stated purpose → Protect it → Keep it only as long as necessary → Delete it when no longer required

Systems handling significant amounts of personal information should increasingly incorporate privacy by design.

That means privacy and security requirements are considered when the product is designed—not added after a breach occurs.

Where practical, this should include encryption, limited employee access, data minimization, defined retention periods, audit trails, and stronger authentication for sensitive information.

Make Data Breaches Visible to the People Affected

When a significant data breach occurs, affected citizens should receive clear information explaining:

What happened → What data was affected → What risk it creates → What the organization is doing → What the citizen should do

India’s DPDP Rules establish breach-notification obligations, including notification to affected individuals and the Data Protection Board, once the relevant provisions commence.

Organizations should also maintain breach records, correct vulnerabilities, and face meaningful consequences when inadequate safeguards or repeated negligence contribute to serious breaches.

Citizens should not discover months later that their identity or financial information was compromised.

The European Union’s GDPR offers an important international example of shifting data protection from voluntary corporate practice to enforceable rights and responsibilities.

GDPR establishes principles including purpose limitation, data minimization, storage limitation, security, and accountability. Organizations must demonstrate compliance rather than merely claim they respect privacy.

It also requires data protection by design and by default. Organizations are expected to build privacy safeguards into systems from the beginning and, by default, process only the data necessary for the intended purpose.

For qualifying personal-data breaches, GDPR generally requires notification to the supervisory authority within 72 hours, and high-risk breaches must also be communicated to affected individuals without undue delay. Eur-Lex
India does not need to copy Europe’s system provision by provision. India has already created its own legal framework through the DPDP Act and Rules.

The next challenge is implementation that citizens can actually experience.
India can go further by combining its strength in digital public infrastructure and interoperable technology with enforceable data rights:

Know who has your data → Understand why they have it → Control your consent → Limit unnecessary collection → Protect the data → Notify you when something goes wrong → Provide a clear path to remedy

India’s digital economy ultimately depends on trust.

Citizens should not have to choose between participating in the digital economy and retaining meaningful control over their personal information.