Gig Economy in India: Labour Rights Violations and Digital Exploitation
5 days, 20 hours ago

Gig Economy in India: Labour Rights Violations and Digital Exploitation

The Hindu  

Published : Mar 18, 2025 12:23 IST - 8 MINS READ Going to the bathroom could cost you your job. Misclassified as “independent contractors”, gig workers have no real power to refuse data collection, because refusal means a total lack of income. Control without accountability The DPDPA’s vague provision permitting data collection for “employment-related purposes” allows platforms to use opaque algorithms to exploit workers under the guise of “safeguarding the employer”. Although global regulations and protections, both for gig workers and data, remain inadequate, they recognise the power imbalances in work-related data collection and the importance of strong enforcement mechanisms.Until India’s data protection framework explicitly safeguards the rights of rapidly growing numbers of gig workers, it will remain incomplete and ineffective. State surveillance While gig workers continue to face digital surveillance and exploitation by private companies, a broader issue is emerging across India and the world: the increasing use of digital data for state surveillance.

India Women Privacy Surveillance Data Labour Digital Workers Gig Workers Data Collection Platforms Personal Data Gig Work Urban Company Dpdpa  violations  gig  work  labour  women  exploitation  rights  surveillance  workers  privacy  india  data  platforms  economy  digital

History of this topic

Laying the digital path to a developed India
2 weeks, 4 days ago

Laying the digital path to a developed India

Hindustan Times  

In Baramati, Maharashtra, a small farmer is rewriting the rules of agriculture with Artificial Intelligence. Building AI — compute, data, and innovation: Semiconductors and electronics form the backbone, while DPI serves as the driving force propelling India’s tech revolution. The government is facilitating the development of India’s own foundational models, including Large Language Models and problem-specific AI solutions tailored to …

Data protection rules and Act, a net negative for privacy rights
1 month, 1 week ago

Data protection rules and Act, a net negative for privacy rights

The Hindu  

Around eight years since the judgment of the Supreme Court of India, in Justice K.S. Despite the Digital Personal Data Protection Act having been notified in August 2023, its provisions remain inoperative due to the delay in the notification of the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules Rules. ‘Significant Data Fiduciaries’, which are entities classified as such due to the volume …

New Digital Rules Let You Wipe All Your Details Online
1 month, 3 weeks ago

New Digital Rules Let You Wipe All Your Details Online

Deccan Chronicle  

Hyderabad: Can a customer walk into a multinational company like Amazon and ask it to remove all her information from the company's database? With the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 released in public domain seeking comments and feedback, the citizens can now look forward to a framework through which they can exercise their right to privacy. The rules …

Bill to take charge of India’s digital destiny
2 months, 1 week ago

Bill to take charge of India’s digital destiny

Hindustan Times  

You wake up, pour yourself a coffee, and scroll through your phone. But what if every app and website you’ve ever used — Instagram, Amazon, or even that odd e-store — was quietly rifling through your personal data without asking you? India’s proposed Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 aim to ensure this nightmare doesn’t become your daily reality. Localisation …

India’s data protection rules need some fine-tuning
2 months, 1 week ago

India’s data protection rules need some fine-tuning

The Hindu  

On January 3, 2025, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology released the much-anticipated Draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules — a key moment in India’s journey to regulate digital personal data. The draft rules represent a departure from the earlier and controversial Personal Data Protection Bill, which many deemed was overly restrictive and even hostile to industry interests. While …

Digital Personal Data Protection Draft Rules: What Are the Sticking Points?
2 months, 2 weeks ago

Digital Personal Data Protection Draft Rules: What Are the Sticking Points?

The Quint  

In 2023, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act was passed by the Parliament. The Act passed after questions were raised with regard to the protection of data and its regulation within the Indian territory and the Act was passed to safeguard the private sphere of the citizens and to push through the idea of ‘digital economy’. In response to the …

Rollout of Data Rules set for mid-2025: IT Minister
Trending News
2 months, 2 weeks ago

Rollout of Data Rules set for mid-2025: IT Minister

The Hindu  

The government is aiming to notify and begin implementing the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 — currently in a draft state — by the middle of this year, Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said. “I don’t see too many amendments coming in the final notification beyond some tweaks.” While large firms are prepared to comply …

Mint Quick Edit | India’s new privacy rules: A mixed bag
2 months, 2 weeks ago

Mint Quick Edit | India’s new privacy rules: A mixed bag

Live Mint  

More than a year after the Digital Personal Data Protection Act was passed, the government has released the draft rules that will enable this law’s implementation. While the rules are expansive, their requirement of parental consent for under-18-year-olds to join social media and gaming platforms could deliver a pragmatic age-gating regime. That said, the return of data localization requirements will …

India’s Digital Data Protection rules: A story of hits and misses
2 months, 2 weeks ago

India’s Digital Data Protection rules: A story of hits and misses

Live Mint  

The draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules are finally with us and the long wait has for the most part been worth it. While the Act requires data fiduciaries to provide notice “in the event of" a personal breach, the rules state that intimation must be made “as soon as the Data Fiduciary becomes aware of it." Ever since Justice …

Parental nod, ID proof: How Modi govt plans to regulate digital access for minors
Top News
2 months, 2 weeks ago

Parental nod, ID proof: How Modi govt plans to regulate digital access for minors

India Today  

The Union government, at the beginning of the new year, unveiled a long-anticipated blueprint for India’s digital future: the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025. Social media platforms, gaming apps and e-commerce websites—all categorised as “data fiduciaries”—are now tasked with obtaining explicit, verifiable consent from users before collecting, processing or storing personal data. When the users in question are …

Privacy as priority: India can’t afford any further delay in notifying data protection rules
3 months, 1 week ago

Privacy as priority: India can’t afford any further delay in notifying data protection rules

Live Mint  

A few days ago, Signzy, a popular Know Your Customer verification service used by India’s top banks and fintech firms, was affected by a cyber attack that may have exposed the sensitive personal information of millions. India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act was passed six years after the Right to Privacy verdict in 2017. The Digital India Act, touted as …

The digital frontier of inequality
3 months, 1 week ago

The digital frontier of inequality

The Hindu  

India stands at a pivotal moment in its digital revolution, underpinned by an internationally recognised model of digital public infrastructure. In response, the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, recently launched ‘Ab Koi Bahana Nahi ’, a national campaign aligned with the global ‘16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence’. Already constrained by societal norms, many …

India's Data Revolution: Unpacking the DPDPA 2023 and Ensuring Accountability
1 year, 3 months ago

India's Data Revolution: Unpacking the DPDPA 2023 and Ensuring Accountability

The Quint  

It is crucial to establish mechanisms that hold the government accountable as a data custodian, said Dr Kislay Pandey, a leading corporate lawyer of India. Specific measures need to be taken to explicitly regulate emerging technologies like AI and tapping into their potential to bolster data protection. He further said, “To ensure the efficacy of data protection and privacy regulation …

How the Digital India Act will shape the future of the country’s cyber landscape
1 year, 5 months ago

How the Digital India Act will shape the future of the country’s cyber landscape

The Hindu  

October 09, 2023 08:30 am | Updated 08:30 am IST Nations worldwide are grappling with the need to update their legal frameworks to adapt to the evolving digital landscape. The recent announcement of the Digital India Act 2023 represents a significant step towards establishing a future-ready legal framework for the country’s burgeoning digital ecosystem. The primary motivation behind the DIA …

Digital Personal Data Protection Act Will Make Companies Handle Data Of Indians Under Legal Obligation: IT Minister
1 year, 7 months ago

Digital Personal Data Protection Act Will Make Companies Handle Data Of Indians Under Legal Obligation: IT Minister

ABP News  

Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Thursday said the Digital Personal Data Protection Act passed by Parliament recently will make digital companies handle the data of Indian citizens under absolute legal obligation. "The Digital Personal Data Protection Act that was passed by Parliament a few days ago is a very important milestone in the …

Paytm CEO says data protection bill ‘well articulated’, calls it ‘progress of our digital economy’
1 year, 7 months ago

Paytm CEO says data protection bill ‘well articulated’, calls it ‘progress of our digital economy’

Hindustan Times  

Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma on Friday took to X to praise the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, stating that it has been “well articulated” and that “it is progress for India's digital economy,” tagging Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar and the IT ministry. The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023, which curbs the misuse of personal information by …

Satire India new Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023 policy highlights
1 year, 7 months ago

Satire India new Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023 policy highlights

The Hindu  

First of all, kudos to the Mother of Democracy for setting new world records every day for fastest-ever law-making. Did you know the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023 zipped through Parliament faster than a bullet train? There was no nonsense like ‘informed consent’ because they knew that all individual streams of data merge eventually with the Annadata — ‘the …

Indranil Banerjie | A Law to Protect Citizens, Or To Help in State Snooping?
1 year, 7 months ago

Indranil Banerjie | A Law to Protect Citizens, Or To Help in State Snooping?

Deccan Chronicle  

In today’s digital age, privacy is a chimera -- the reality is that every intimate detail of our lives, from our eating and spending patterns to medical and financial details, are digitally recorded in some computer somewhere in the vast cloud and can therefore be potentially exposed. The idea of a digital data protection law had become imperative given the …

Indian state’s new tax on digital platforms sets gig workers against firms
1 year, 7 months ago

Indian state’s new tax on digital platforms sets gig workers against firms

Al Jazeera  

The new law will impose a tax on each transaction on digital platforms to fund a welfare scheme for gig workers. Gig workers have welcomed a new law in India’s largest state Rajasthan to impose a tax on revenue earned by digital platforms that operate in the state, including global giants Uber and Amazon, even as industry groups have warned …

Fix govt accountability for personal data leaks
1 year, 9 months ago

Fix govt accountability for personal data leaks

Hindustan Times  

Privacy – that elusive fundamental right – is again under the spotlight with reports of a possible breach of CoWIN data of individuals. Two provisions under the Information Technology Act, 2000 – Section 43A and Section 72A – encompass personal data protection in India. Pursuant to the Puttaswamy judgment of 2017, the central government released multiple drafts of the proposed …

A new deal to protect India’s gig workers?
2 years ago

A new deal to protect India’s gig workers?

Hindustan Times  

Last month, as part of its budget for 2023-24, Rajasthan announced that the state will enact a law for the protection of gig workers, establish a welfare board, and devote ₹200 crore for this purpose. It will be administered by a welfare board, which — if labour demands are fulfilled — will have representatives of the government, platform companies and …

Digital India Act: A Black and White Journey Begins After The Festival Of Colours
2 years ago

Digital India Act: A Black and White Journey Begins After The Festival Of Colours

ABP News  

Union Minister for State for Electronics And Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar unveiled and gave an overall glimpse of the proposed basic structure/framework and an overall roadmap of the Digital India Act 2023 on March 9, 2023. While on the one hand, the internet, devices and information technology have empowered the citizens of India, at the same time it has also …

India's Digital Independence: What Govt Can Do To Protect Residents Against Data Breaches
2 years, 5 months ago

India's Digital Independence: What Govt Can Do To Protect Residents Against Data Breaches

ABP News  

Personal data exploitation is a goldmine that has been exploited by big players in the digital world. As India steps into the 5G era with ambitious goals set to be achieved within ‘Amrit Kaal’, it needs a robust digital Independence strategy against global personal data exploitation — designed and executed by Indians — in order to maintain control over the …

Gig workers vulnerable to exploitation
3 years ago

Gig workers vulnerable to exploitation

The Hindu  

As “delivery riders”, they zip around on their bikes non-stop after picking up orders from restaurants or retail chains trying to meet daily targets. According to India Brand Equity Foundation, a trust established by the Department of Commerce, an estimate showed that by 2025, there would be 350 million gig workers, thus presenting “a huge opportunity for job seekers to …

Second-order effects of the Personal Data Protection Bill
5 years, 3 months ago

Second-order effects of the Personal Data Protection Bill

The Hindu  

This is a blog post from The provisions of the Personal Data Protection Bill, presented in Parliament earlier this month and referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee for examination, have received significant coverage in the media because of what it means for protection of personal data and concerns around state surveillance. Hence, if foreign companies have to start investing in …

Understanding the Data Protection White Paper Part XII: Establishing a data protection authority and permitting class action suits in India
7 years, 3 months ago

Understanding the Data Protection White Paper Part XII: Establishing a data protection authority and permitting class action suits in India

Firstpost  

The White Paper also raises certain interesting questions such as whether class action suits should be permitted for data protection, and whether judicial impact assessments are required. The last part of the White Paper discusses the establishment of a robust, independent and technically sound data protection authority, along the lines of the Information Commissioners or Privacy Commissioners found in other …

Digital India needs to go local
9 years, 5 months ago

Digital India needs to go local

The Hindu  

Digital India is the flavour of the season, and not without any reason. The former group of people would see >Government of India’s flagship Digital India programme as an opportunity to include digital infrastructure in the same category of public goods as roads and electricity and, hence, push for laying more broadband cables, creating more Wi-Fi hot-spots and freeing up …

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