India is in the verge of introducing a new Data Protection Bill, a draft of which is expected to be placed for public discussion any time now. The law may be finalized in the next two months.

This law will cover the need to protect the "Privacy" of an individual  in the Information domain by   regulating the collection and use of digital personal data.

The essence of Information Privacy is however limited to the freedom of an individual to express his "Right of Choice" on how his personal data is collected and processed.

The recent developments in technology have however seen that the "Right of Choice" of an individual itself is open to manipulation through an attack on the human brain through Brain Computer interfaces used in medical science.

The recent revelation of a Virtual Reality device called "Oculus" which is used for Metaverse Gaming can potentially be programmed to kill the wearer when he dies in a game by discharge of a blast of Microwave radiation to the brain. This and other versions of attack on human brain from specified frequencies of sound waves is a distinct possibility that would seriously impair the ability of an individual to take autonomous decisions. 

If this right to have an autonomous brain activity is not protected by law, the law on protection of Privacy will fall seriously short.

I therefore urge the Government of India that while drafting the new Digital Personal Data Protection Act, they should also include provisions for Neuro Rights Protection in the law.

At Present Chile is the  only Country in the world to protect Neuro Rights through a constitutional amendment. India has the opportunity to be the second country to have a Neurorights protection if the Government acts now.

I therefore propose the immediate introduction of the following four points in the new law to take care of Neuro Rights Protection. This protection can later be carried through with the regulations.

1. Recognize “Neuro Data” as a kind of data coming under “Protected data”  : “Neuro Data” may be defined as- “Neuro data means the electromagnetic signals that are collected from or fed into the human brain by a Brain Computer Interface in binary form.”

2. Recognize “Neuro privacy” as a kind of “Protected right”: “Neuro Privacy” may be defined as- “Neuro Privacy” means the choice of an individual to determine to what extent the individual may share his neuro space with others”

3.Recognize “Neurological harm” as a kind of harm from which a human needs to be protected against. “Neurological harm”  may be defined as – Neurological manipulation which alters the ability of an individual to take autonomous decisions” as an extesion of “psychological manipulations”

4. Recognized “Witnessed Consent” to protect Neuro right: “Witnessed Consent” may be defined as-  consent provided by a data principal which is witnessed by independent third parties who donot have conflicting interest in the processing of the personal data under circumstances that the data principal may not be reasonably expected to provide a free consent, and includes sharing of neuro data or sharing of personal data when the data principal is not in a medical condition to provide informed consent.”

This is a Human Rights Protection Issue required in the era of the Next Generation Technology. India has an opportunity to bring it into the law immediately and this opportunity should not be let go.

India may be late in passing the Data Protection Law but let us make it up by being early in protecting the Neuro Rights.

Let us join together in bringing this urgent need to the attention of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) and to Mr Rajeev Chandrashekar and Mr Ashwini Vaishnav the concerned ministers in the Union Government.