As the data protection community awaits the notification DPDPA rules, there is a speculation that Government is hesitant since Government bodies are not ready.
While it may be true that the Government bodies are not fully ready for DPDPA, private entities are also not ready and are putting pressures on the Government to delay.
It is strange that some of these companies are deliberately flouting the rules even though they are aware that they are wrong.
We have been attending many Privacy seminars all over India and it is clear that the professionals have a fairly good awareness of what needs to be done and what should be avoided. But the companies are going ahead with their bad practices indicating that the business managers donot care about the law.
I recently came across ZeeTV which has a mobile app which can be subscribed only with an “Auto Pay” instruction. There is no clear option to make payment for a monthly or yearly subscription without agreeing to auto renew.
I recently saw “Audible” also imposing mandatory auto renewal for its membership. Does it mean that the DPO of Audible and ZeeTV donot know the basics of Data Protection?. It appears to be so.
Probably the business managers donot know that as soon as the Act is notified, there could be a flood of complaints on such companies and ZeeTV may need to face a penalty situation upto and beyond Rs 250 crores for not complying with DPDPA.
Hope ZeeTV will put an end to this obnoxious practice.
Naavi
P.S: Readers have informed that Netflix and Audible also have a similar policy of forced auto renewal.
