Reconsidering Consent: An Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Data Principal Rights Under India’s DPDP Act, 2023 In Relation To The Eu GDPR
- IJLLR Journal
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
Vijay Shalini Prajapati, B.A.LL.B. (Hons.), Atal Bihari Vajpayee School of Legal Studies, Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University, Kanpur.
ABSTRACT
The rapid growth of the digital economy has turned personal data into a precious economic asset, and the issue of privacy, personal autonomy, and information management has become highly important. Consent has in its turn become one of the focal points of legal processes in the contemporary data protection systems. In this paper, the role and efficacy of consent, as specified in the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 of India, are considered and put into a comparison with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation.
The paper concludes that despite the structured consent-based framework, which the DPDP Act entails and the data principal rights it grants, the practicality of the DPDP Act is constrained by structural and institutional problems. These consist of a comparatively limited range of rights, generalized provisions that concern the reasonable use and exemptions of the states, and issues of enforcement and awareness to the user. Conversely, the GDPR is more robust and rights-focused, with the consent working together with other legitimate reasons and with more enforceable rights and more powerful regulatory frameworks.
It follows a doctrinal and comparative approach to the study, examining the legislative provisions, judicial rulings, and academic sources on the topic to assess the extent and legitimacy of consent as a legal foundation to process data. It also evaluates the character and the scope of data principal rights as per the DPDP Act and contrasts them with the data subject rights framework as per the GDPR. The main questions concerning informed consent, consent fatigue, information asymmetry, and the influence of dark patterns on user decision-making are also discussed.
Keywords: Data Protection, Consent, Data Principal Rights, GDPR, Consent Fatigue, Dark Patterns, State Exemptions.
