Bridging the Gap: Data Privacy and Safety of Women

This paper looks at how far India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 actually succeeds in regulating the way companies collect, store, and use personal data, with particular attention paid to the gap left by newer technologies such as deepfakes and AI-generated content. Using doctrinal analysis and comparative reference to the United Kingdom and the European Union, it traces the development of Indian data protection law from the Information Technology Act, 2000 through Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India to the 2023 Act. This legal analysis is combined with primary survey data collected from seventy-seven respondents on their awareness, trust, and concern about corporate data handling. The findings show that public concern about how companies use personal data consistently outstrips trust that companies handle it responsibly, and that most respondents were unaware of the DPDP Act itself. The paper argues that while India's framework broadly matches global standards, it is not yet equipped to deal with AI-driven and gender-based harms, and that how effective it turns out to be will depend on enforcement through the Data Protection Board rather than on the text of the law alone.