Dinkar Kalra

09/08/2023

The Rajya Sabha passed the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill with a voice vote. The bill will now be sent to the President for her assent. After 6 long years, India has its own Data protection law.

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05/07/2023

A massive blow to . The has held that Facebook cannot claim legitimate interest as a ground to process personal data. In a press release it noted: “The personalised advertising by which the online social network Facebook finances its activity, cannot justify, as a legitimate interest pursued by Meta Platforms Ireland, the processing of the data at issue, in the absence of the data subject’s consent.”

https://lnkd.in/dNNy8pVX

A long-anticipated judgement today by the Court of Justice of the European Union looks to have comprehensively crushed Meta's ability to deny European users a free choice over its tracking and profiling.

05/07/2023

The Union cabinet today cleared the Digital Personal Data Protection bill, 2022. The bill will now be tabled in the Parliament during the upcoming Monsoon session. An earlier version of the bill titled ‘Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018’ was proposed by the BN Srikrishna Committee. This bill was tabled before the Parliament and was referred to as the ‘Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019’. This bill was forwarded to the JPC after it was tabled and was under consideration for over 2 years. When the JPC finally submitted its report, it suggested 88 amendments in a bill that comprised only of 91 sections and proposed a new bill titled the ‘Data Protection Bill, 2021’. The Union Government withdrew the bill in August, 2022 citing the JPC report and stated that a more comprehensive bill would be presented which it did in November, 2022.

03/07/2023

A critical breakdown of the Twitter vs. UOI judgement by the Hon'ble Karnataka High Court by Vasudev Devdasan.

This week, the Karnataka High Court delivered its judgement on Twitter’s legal complaint against the Union Government’s ‘blocking orders’ under Section 69A of the IT Act. The orders restricted nume…

10/10/2022

The European Parliamentary Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, has approved the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework following a vote from the European Council. The framework seeks to create a consistent regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies across the bloc. The framework will be put before the full European Parliament in the next session.
Also, the European Commission has put out a call to study 'embedded supervision' of Decentralised Finance protocols on the Chain to ensure inbuilt supervision within the space which so far seems to follow only the 'Code is law" approach.

09/10/2022

On 5th October, Celsius Networks filed documents before a Bankruptcy Court in the U.S. that included sensitive personal information including customer names, transaction dates, which cryptoasset and how much of it was involved.
As it has emerged Celsius did try to protect customer information in these filings by asking the court to permit redaction of names and addresses. Celsius cited the threat of identity theft and also the fact that many of its users were outside the U.S. jurisdiction and disclosing such information may expose it to civil liability in other jurisdictions such as in the EU as this would be a violation of the GDPR. The company proposed using an “Address on File” notation instead of providing this information.
However, the US Trustee argued against the same and sought that the proceedings be 'open and transparent'. Celsius even argued for complete anonymisation of data but most of its requests were denied by the Court which permitted only the redaction of email and home addresses.

Bankrupt Celsius exposed personal information of thousands of users amid its restructuring process. Here’s what happened and what you can do for protection.

03/08/2022

The Indian Govt. has moved to withdraw the Personal Data Protection Bill, pending before the Lok Sabha.
The bill was introduced in response to the August, 2017 Supreme Court judgment in the Justice Puttaswamy case which declared the right to privacy as a fundamental right. The bill was drafted by the Srikrishna Committee and first introduced in 2019, then sent to the JPC. A revised bill was put out by the JPC in November 2021 which expanded its ambit to include Non personal data as well.
The IT Minister in his statement to the house claimed that a new bill that takes into account the Joint Parliamentary Committee's recommendations with a 'comprehensive legal framework' will be introduced.

P.S. I wouldn't hold my breath!!

17/02/2022

The Financial Stability Board (an international body that monitors the global financial system) has put out a report wherein it shares its concerns about the scale and volatility of markets and its effects on global financial stability. The report expresses concern about the investments being made by traditional financial institutions . The report states that "Systemically important banks and other financial institutions are increasingly willing to undertake activities in, and gain exposures to, crypto assets. The prevalence of more complex investment strategies, including through derivatives and other leveraged products that reference crypto assets, also has increased. . . If the current trajectory of growth in scale and interconnectedness of crypto assets to these institutions were to continue, this could have implications for global financial stability.”
The report states that Crypto market capitalisation grew 3.5 times in 2021 to a value of USD 2.6 Trillion.
The report highlights three major concerns about the crypto markets, first is the volatility of unbacked currencies such as , etc.; second, such as tether, which are backed by reserve assets and lastly decentralised finance ( ) and crypto asset trading platforms.
However, this only goes to show that countries must come together and take joint steps to regulate Crypto assets. Turning this entire industry underground will benefit only criminals.

16/02/2022

A report by indicates that crypto mergers and acquisition values went up by 4,846% in 2021, with the average transaction size tripling in value, from $52.7 million to $179.7 million. Total value of crypto fundraising deals also increased by 645% in 2021 and was valued at $34.3 Billion. However, most of these deals were concentrated in the Americas.

15/02/2022

Amazing infographic on various kinds of Crypto scams

01/02/2022

The Indian Finance Minister has announced that India will be taxing all at a rate of 30% and that no deductions or exemptions will be applicable to the same (except cost of acquisition). Also, that losses from this cannot be set-off against any other income (which I believe should and will be challenged before Courts). The definition of 'virtual digital assets' (to be added as Section 2 Clause 47A in the Income Tax Act) includes everything from cryptocurrencies to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and extends to all methods of earning from digital assets like trading, yielding, farming and .
For reference, 30% is the highest tax bracket and is applicable to individuals with an annual income of more than ₹15 lakh.
The Finance Minister also stated that any gifts of virtual digital assets shall be taxable for the recipient (meaning that any "airdrops" will also become taxable). Also, tax deducted at source (TDS) will be imposed on payments for the transfer of crypto assets at a rate of 1% for transactions over a certain threshold (the 'threshold' has not yet been defined). Also, users will now not be able to take advantage of Long term capital gains provisions.
One silver lining however is that the express taxation of crypto currencies makes it clear that they are completely LEGAL.

01/02/2022

The Indian Finance Minister has announced the launch of the — a blockchain based central bank digital currency ( ) — which shall be operational 2022-23 onwards and be regulated by the R.B.I.
However, the supporters of Crypto Currency say that a digital currency launched by a state will still be limited by the same problems that traditional currency faces. They claim that a currency regulated by a government will be subjected to the same scrutiny and will undo all the anonymity and privacy advantages of a Crypto Currency, that it vulnerable to the same greed and misappropriation that is so rampant in Governments and Banks and will be subject to the same taxes and transmission costs as regular currency defeating the purpose of a Crypto Currency all together.
These same sentiments have been echoed by U.S. Federal Reserve and the House of Lords as I had pointed out in an earlier post which is shared below.