Rohan Seth speaks on a panel at Medianama's Event on the Personal Data Protection Bill

Rohan Seth spoke at a panel on “Cross-border data flows” at Medianama’s discussion on the Personal Data Protection Bill, held at the Royal Orchids Hotel, Bangalore on 16^th January 2020.The other panelists were Nikhil Narendran (Trilegal) and Arun Prabhu (Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas).Key takeaways from the panel:The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 has several key areas that need to be addressed in terms of cross-border data flows. Lack of clarity on the definition of critical personal data is a major hurdle to Indian business and there is a certain amount of ambiguity around whether personal or personally sensitive data can become critical personal data. There is also no global precedence in democracies using three tiers of classification of data. In addition, as the classification does not lend itself to global standards, it is likely to pose a challenge for companies in India to deal with it. There is also no clarity around how the Data Protection Authority would assess the adequacy of different countries or approve intragroup schemes, both of which are mandatory requirements under the bill to allow the cross-border transfer of personal sensitive data.