EU, India, 8 other countries call for international cooperation on personal data protection
New Delhi(PTI): The European Union and nine countries, including India, on Monday called for fostering international cooperation to promote high data protection and privacy standards based on certain core elements increasingly shared across the Indo-Pacific region, Europe and beyond.
In a 'Joint Declaration on Privacy and the Protection of Personal Data: Strengthening trust in the digital environment', the European Union, Australia, Comoros, India, Japan, Mauritius, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore and Sri Lanka said rapid technological developments, in particular in information and digital technologies, have brought benefits for their economies and societies, as well as new challenges for privacy and the protection of personal data.
To foster data free flow with trust, which, as also acknowledged by the G20 Rome Leaders' Declaration, is key to harness the opportunities of the digital economy, it is vital to ensure, as guaranteed by these countries' respective legal frameworks, respect for individuals' right to privacy and the protection of personal data as a core value and fundamental freedom, said the declaration shared by the Ministry of External Affairs.
The EU and the countries that issued the joint declaration said the lack of trust in how data is handled has negatively impacted their diverse societies and economies, as individuals and communities may be reluctant to adopt new technologies, public authorities could be hesitant to share personal data with foreign partners and commercial exchanges may face obstacles.
"In sum, without trust, our societies are not able to fully embrace and realise the benefits of the digital revolution, which are in turn key to development and in particular for achieving the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Goals," the declaration said.
"Together, we share a common vision of a human-centric approach to such transformation, where the effective protection of personal data plays a crucial role and is a key enabler for cross-border cooperation," it said.
To achieve this goal, the EU and the nine countries said they intend to foster international cooperation to promote high data protection and privacy standards based on certain core elements increasingly shared across the Indo-Pacific region, Europe and beyond.
They called for comprehensive legal frameworks and policies covering both the private and public sectors.
They underlined core principles such as lawfulness, fairness, transparency, purpose limitation, data minimisation, limited data retention, data security and accountability.
They also called for enforceable rights of individuals, such as access, rectification, deletion, and safeguards with respect to automated decision-making such as transparency and the possibility to challenge the outcome.
The joint declaration emphasised on safeguards for international transfers to enable cross-border data flows by ensuring that the protection travels with the data.
It also called for independent oversight by a dedicated supervisory authority and effective redress.
"We commit to foster and further develop international policy discussions and cooperation regarding data protection and cross-border data flows with trust, both bilaterally and multilaterally, in order to promote this shared vision and increase convergence amongst our data protection frameworks," the statement said.
In a world where data moves easily between jurisdictions, this also increasingly requires close cooperation, in compliance with the relevant applicable legal frameworks, among supervisory authorities across borders, it said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
11 more bodies retrieved from Arunachal accident site
Itanagar (PTI): Eleven more bodies were retrieved on Saturday from the deep gorge in Arunachal Pradesh's Anjaw district, where a mini-truck on which 22 labourers from Assam were travelling fell, an official said.
With this, 17 bodies have been recovered from the accident site, Anjaw's deputy commissioner Milo Kojin said.
He said three more bodies will be brought out on Sunday.
The operation, being conducted by a joint team of the NDRF and Army, resumed at 6 am.
ALSO READ: Traffic fraud: Fake 'no-entry' sticker racket busted in Delhi, mastermind among 3 held
"The retrieval process was extremely difficult because of the treacherous terrain, and the gorge is very deep," Kojin said.
The operation was suspended around 4 pm due to low visibility and will be resumed on Sunday morning, he said.
"One person is still missing, and a search operation will be carried out tomorrow," he added.
The accident happened on the evening of December 8, around 40 km from Hayuliang towards Chaglagam in the district. On the evening of December 10, one survivor managed to climb out of the gorge and reach a nearby Border Roads Task Force (BRTF) labour camp, following which the authorities were alerted.
Six bodies were recovered from the gorge on Friday and handed over to their families on Saturday.
