For U.S. Tech, India’s Draft Privacy Bill Has Hidden Risks

There isn’t much the Indian government and Meta Platforms see eye to eye on. And yet earlier this week, the U.S. social-media giant’s president of global affairs called a reworked draft of the country’s data-protection bill a promising turn of events.

The fourth iteration of the long-pending privacy bill, released for public consultation in November, solves some big problems: Previously mooted versions had alarmed tech companies by proposing to treat social-media platforms as publishers, regulate the use of nonpersonal information such as traffic data, and bar companies from processing critical personal data outside India.