DPDP for Telecom and Telecommunications

If I stop receiving bills by email and switch to the app, does the telecom company have to stop its processor from emailing me?

Yes, and the Act says so in its own example. The operator has to stop the old use itself, and it also has to make the vendor doing the emailing stop. Passing the instruction on is part of the duty, not an optional extra.

ACT · Section 6(6) illustration.

Can my telecom provider keep using my data after I withdraw consent?

Withdrawing stops future use that was resting on your agreement. It does not undo what was already done lawfully, and it does not stop work needed to finish something you have already paid for, or anything another law requires them to do.

ACT · Section 6(5) and 6(6).

Can my telecom provider use my call or data patterns to offer me new plans or partner offers?

Using how you actually use the service in order to sell you something else is normally a separate purpose. Selling to you is not on the law's short list of situations where nobody has to be asked, so that needs your agreement specifically. Providing the connection does not carry it.

ACT · Section 6.

What happens to my KYC and call detail records after I port or disconnect the number?

They can keep it while a live reason remains, or while another law requires it, and telecom rules commonly set their own periods. This law gives way to those, and then expects deletion once they run out.

ACT · Section 8(7).

Can they share my data with group companies (for example streaming or fintech apps)?

Only with a specific reason for that sharing. Being in the same group is not one. A phone customer is not automatically a prospect for the group's streaming or lending app.

ACT · Sections 4 and 6.

I get constant spam calls. Did my operator hand over my number?

You do not have to speculate. You have a right to ask the operator for the identity of every other company it has shared your personal data with, and a description of what was shared. That is a written answer you can act on.

Whether the sharing was allowed in the first place is a separate question, and it needed a reason of its own. Being a customer is not one.

Rules on unsolicited commercial calls apply on top of this, because this law sits alongside other laws rather than replacing them.

ACT · Sections 11(1)(b), 6(1) and 38(1).

Can my operator use where my phone has been?

For running the network, yes. A mobile service cannot work without knowing which tower you are on, and that is part of providing what you signed up for.

Beyond that it becomes a separate purpose. Building a picture of where you go, in order to sell you something or to sell to somebody else, is not part of connecting your call, and it needs its own reason.

Anything a law specifically requires the operator to keep or produce is a different matter again, and it is limited to what that law asks for.

ACT · Sections 6(1), 7(d) and 4.

You cannot withdraw consent while you have an active connection.

You can withdraw at any time, and withdrawing has to be as easy as agreeing was. What withdrawal does not undo is work still needed to finish something you have paid for, or anything another law requires.

We share your data across group companies because we are one organisation.

Being in the same group is not a reason. Each disclosure needs its own footing, and the law treats each company as a separate person.

Our billing vendor kept emailing you, so that is their problem.

The operator stays answerable even where its vendor is the one that failed, and it is the operator's job to make the vendor stop. The Act's own telecom example says exactly this.