The data protection law would also have allowed those who have had their phones targeted, by the surveillance malware, to seek legal redressal, he said. The only way the government can access the data is by bringing a Parliamentary legislation, which empowers them to access data under certain circumstances,” Justice Srikrishna, who headed the government’s committee that drafted the original Personal Data Protection Bill, said. Justice Srikrishna said while a concrete data protection law would have allowed people whose names have surfaced in the Pegasus Project reports to take the government to court for breach of privacy, they could do so “even now”. Those reports also had no factual basis and were categorically denied by all parties, including WhatsApp in the Indian Supreme Court. Justice Srikrishna, however, said that the government should, like France, order a high-level probe, perhaps under the guidance of a judge of the Supreme Court.

Source: Indian Express July 22, 2021 18:51 UTC