Data Protection Bill: Amazon refuses to appear before joint committee of Parliament

Panel chairperson and BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi said that E-commerce giant Amazon has refused to appear before the Joint Committee of Parliament on the Data Protection Bill on October 28 and this amounts to breach of privilege. Also Read | WhatsApp new feature: Allows you to mute chat forever Lekhi said “the panel is unanimous in its opinion that coercive action can be suggested to the government against the e-commerce company”. “Amazon has refused to appear before the panel on October 28 and if no one on behalf of the e-commerce company appears before the panel it amounts to breach of privilege,” she quoted. On the other hand, Facebook’s policy head Ankhi Das appeared before the panel on the issue of data security on Friday. According to the sources, Facebook India representatives were asked some tough and searching questions by the members of the panel. During the meeting, a member suggested that the social media giant should not draw inferences from the data of its users for commercial benefits of its advertisers.  The panel has summoned officials of micro-blogging site Twitter on October 28 and Google and Paytm on October 29. -PTC News