In today’s digital era, the right to privacy is one of the most debated and critical legal topics being discussed worldwide. Individuals are highly vulnerable to online data breaches, corporate data harvesting and government monitoring.
Evolution of the Right to Privacy
The framers of the Indian Constitution did not intentionally include the right to privacy directly and was not initially a part of Part III, which addresses fundamental rights. However, the judiciary has a crucial role in introducing and shaping the concept of privacy in India. The cases listed below are prime examples of the development of privacy rights in India.
- M.P. Sharma vs Satish Chandra: The M.P. Sharma vs Satish Chandra case is an iconic case in Indian Judicial History highlighting the concern for privacy rights in India. In 1954, an eight-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India on hearing the case gave its judgement in favour of the search and seizure procedure over privacy rights.
- Kharak Singh vs UP Government: This case involves Kharak Singh, a citizen of Uttar Pradesh who challenged certain rules that allowed the police to keep an eye on those suspected of being involved in criminal activities. The court after analyzing the power to regulate police surveillance concluded that privacy is not an absolute constitutional right.
- Govind vs State of MP: The Govind vs State of Madhya Pradesh case marked a major step in the evolution of privacy rights in the constitution. The pioneering judgment established that a person’s right to privacy can be overruled by a discernible greater state interest.
- Mr. X vs Hospital Z: This case highlighted the fact that the right to privacy is not absolute and is subject to certain limitations.
- Ram Jethmalani & Ors vs Union of India: This case highlighted the concern for unauthorized disclosure of a person’s bank account details without any reasonable cause.
Right to Privacy: A Fundamental Right
The right to privacy was not intentionally included in the Indian Constitution, It was done after a series of events and procedures. Under Article 21 (Right to Life and Personal Liberty) in the Landmark K.S. Puttaswamy Vs. Union of India case (2017), the Right to Privacy was recognised as a fundamental right.
Right to Privacy covers and extends to multiple aspects of life which includes the following:
- Personal Choices (Sexual Orientation)
- Privacy of Data (Aadhar Authentication)
- Freedom from surveillance (Pegasus Spyware controversy)
Digital Privacy in India
The digital privacy of an individual is governed by several laws established by the Indian government. The key legislations are as follows:
- Under the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 sections 43A and 72A are made to deal with sensitive personal information. The act is supposed to penalise activities such as hacking, identity theft and cyberstalking.
- The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 (Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023) seeks to regulate the processing of personal data for both private as well as government organizations. This is supposed to establish data localization requirements and a user consent mechanism.
- Artificial Intelligence-based decisions might infringe on the privacy rights of an individual.
Certain incidents of privacy violations also took place in recent years by different corporations such as:
- The Cambridge Analytica Scandal (2018) involved the user data of Facebook users harvested without any consent from the individuals.
- Google’s location tracking controversy involved the collection of the location of the user even after disabling it by the users.
Privacy Concerns in the Corporate Sector
With the increasing usage of the internet, tech giants like Google, Facebook and Amazon are collecting vast amounts of data for advertising and analysing their targeted audience. Many challenges occur during the process of data collection such as:
- There is a lack of information while providing consent, users are often seen accepting the terms and conditions without fully reading and understanding the consent.
- There is also monetization of the personal data of an individual. Companies sell their data which is the user’s data to the advertisers without any transparency.
The Importance of the Right to Privacy & Digital Laws – FAQs
The right to privacy is a fundamental right of an individual recognised under Article 21 of the constitution by the Supreme Court of India which ensures protection against unauthorised intrusion into personal affairs.
The IT Act 2000, particularly the sections 43A and 72A is authorised to penalise data breaches, unauthorised data access and identity theft.
The K.S. Puttaswamy case (2017) established the right to privacy as a fundamental right of an individual allowing data privacy and digital privacy norms.
Yes, the government is authorised to intercept and monitor data for security purposes but only under legal provisions such as section 69 of the IT Act.
An individual can be fined up to 5 lakhs and sentenced to imprisonment if found guilty of activities such as hacking, identity theft, and data breaches.