Data Protection Bill: Support data localisation, Jio Platforms tells House panel

The joint parliamentary committee on the Personal Data Protection Bill on Wednesday heard the views of Reliance Industries’ digital business unit and its telecom venture on the privacy of data of its subscribers and users.

It is learnt that the representatives of Jio Platforms Ltd and Reliance Jio Infocomm told the panel, headed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi, that the company supports localisation of data.

The executives told the panel that the companies do not share data with third parties like Facebook. In April, Facebook had purchased nearly 10 per cent stake in Jio Platforms.

Deposing before the panel earlier, tech giant Google had argued that India should avoid data localisation requirements. The representatives of e-commerce giant Amazon too had expressed reservations over localisation of data and cross-border restrictions on flow of data.

It is learnt that the Reliance representatives were asked whether there is any data-sharing mechanism between the company and its investors Facebook and Google and its users. The representatives replied in the negative and argued that the both tech firms are its financial investors.