NEW DELHI: A government panel has suggested that information, ranging from your caste and religion to passwords, sexual preferences, Aadhaar and tax details, is "sensitive personal data " and cannot be shared without your explicit consent.The high-level committee headed by Justice BN Srikrishna, has made consent the foundation of the proposed data protection law. "Consent needs to be informed… consent needs to be specific… consent must be clear… (and) consent needs to be capable to being withdrawn as easily as it was given," the committee said in its report submitted to law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday.The panel has said subscribers to internet and social-media platforms like Google and Facebook should have the right to access their personal data any time.The committee has laid down steps that guard against personal profiling of individuals and uninformed harvesting of data by third-party applications, something that occurred in the data leak case involving Facebook and Cambridge Analytica .The panel was set up in July 2017 ensure the growth of the digital economy , while securing the personal data.The responsibility for handling data has been put on "data controller"-the companies and organisations that have access to data.It has recommended penalties - ranging from Rs 15 crore to as high as 4% of an entity's global turnover, for violations or deviations.The committee has also suggested setting up of a data protection authority which will oversee the implementation of the proposed law.Experts and sections of industry have expressed reservations and suggested further strengthening of the draft bill."This bill provides a strong foundation of protection for Indians' privacy, but it is not without loopholes - in particular, the requirement to store a copy of all personal data within India, creating broad permissions for government use of data, and the independence of the regulator's adjudicatory authority" said Amba Kak, policy advisor at Mozilla, the non-for-profit behind browser Firefox."The committee has avoided giving citizens data ownership. The bill should not be passed. Needs fixing," says Nikhil Pahwa, data privacy expert. In a joint statement, Nasscom and Data Security Council of India said mandating localisation of all personal data is likely to become a trade barrier. "Start-ups from India going global may not be able to leverage global cloud platforms and will face barriers as they expand in new markets," the statement said.