Data PrivacyRole of Data Protection Officer of Significant Data Fiduciary

Role of Data Protection Officer of Significant Data Fiduciary

In terms of Section 10(2) of DPDPA,2023, the Significant Data Fiduciary is bound to appoint a Data Protection Officer.

This appointment is an obligatory requirement under the enactment.

Section 10(2) The Significant Data Fiduciary shall—

(a) appoint a Data Protection Officer who shall—
(i) represent the Significant Data Fiduciary under the provisions of this Act;

(ii) be based in India;

(iii) be an individual responsible to the Board of Directors or similar governing body of the Significant Data Fiduciary; and

(iv) be the point of contact for the grievance redressal mechanism under the provisions of this Act;

On perusal of the above,  the Data Protection Officer will be an individual based in India and shall be responsible to the Board of Directors of the Significant Data Fiduciary and shall be the point of contact for grievance redressal mechanism under DPDPA,2023.

The Role of Data Protection Officer can be summarised as under:

a.Steward of Data Protection implementation in an organisation,

b.Facilitation of Data Protection culture in the organisation,

c.Ensuring entity-wide compliance with Data Protection laws,

d.Guiding Senior Management or Board of Directors regarding Data Protection matters,

e.Understanding and acting upon the data handling needs of specific industry,

f.Point of contact for grievance redressal mechanism under DPDA, 2023,and

g. Authorised person under DPDPA,2023 

The penalty provisions being very harsh, it wont be wrong to conclude that the role and responsibility of the Data Protection Officer will be a herculean task round the clock.

To know more about the issues discussed above, You may please connect with dataprivacy@amlegals.com or mridusha.guha@amlegals.com.