As India gets set to table the much-awaited Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 in Parliament, a recent survey claims that seven out of 10 citizens believe that their personal data has been leaked.

The LocalCircles survey features a sample size of 23,000 responses from citizens spread across 309 districts. Of the respondents, 67 percent were male as compared to 33 percent females. Among the citizens surveyed, 45 percent were from tier 1 cities, 34 percent from tier 2 cities and 21 percent from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.

As per the survey, 72 percent of respondents claim their personal data has been leaked or is in the public domain. Of the respondents, 50 percent claim that their Aadhaar and/or PAN Card details are in the public domain.

Interestingly, 81 percent of respondents hold State Govt or Local Administration like RTO, municipality, hospitals, PDS, and property registration responsible. Moreover, 56 percent of respondents hold Central Govt databases like EPF, Passport, CoWIN, Aarogya Setu, and Aadhaar responsible.

Additionally, 75 percent of citizens surveyed blamed telcos for leaks. And 69 percent blamed banks and financial service providers.

As per the survey report, feedback from respondents indicates a demand for strong disincentives and penalties for both private players and Government entities.

Interestingly, the final version of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023, allows the central government the power to exempt any government entity from compliance with provisions of this bill. ​