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Developmental Lawyering Practice

“Right to Privacy”
Internal Assessment – 1 (Legal Literacy Booklet)

Name Raghav Agarwal

PRN 21010122059

Year First Year, Semester One

Division -

Course LL.B

Submitted to Prof. Aditi Suresh M., Adv. Sangramjeet C. and Prof.

Chaitraly D.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

S. NO. TITLE PAGE NO.

1. Introduction 3-4

Laws and Legal Remedy and Judgments

3. 5-6
regarding the right to privacy

4. Suggestions to Establish Physical and Digital 7-8

Privacy

5. Conclusion 8

6. References and Citations 9

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Right to Privacy
Introduction

In the modern world, Privacy is a myth! Our phone numbers and addresses are shared online
and to strangers, our personal details on social media platforms get leaked online and the
government is not able to assure safety of our personal identifiable information such as our
finger prints, iris-scans, DNA, etc. Not just that, there is a multi- billion dollar industry that
collects your medical, financial, commercial, travel plans personal expenditure and
preferences to respective companies in order to create a database for them, send you targeted
advertisements using neuro-marketing tools to sell commodities you do not even need, in
short, making a business out of you.

Privacy is the state when one is not observed or disturbed by anyone. It is a fundamental right
under Article 21, right to life and personal liability, which ensures safety and protection from
surveillance. Humans choose to socially dependent on each other but it is essential that they
are given their own space without which they would lose on their personal identity, not
functioning as individuals to contribute to society. The advancements in technology have
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their merits, but have proven to be regressive when it comes to ensuring privacy for everyone
and must be rectified. The United Nations acknowledges the role that technology in its 17
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and recognizes the importance of maintaining
Privacy in its 16th Goal of implementing Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.

After a thorough understanding of the concept of privacy, seven types of have been
identified-

1. Privacy of Body- No one can touch or even examine without the person’s consent.

2. Privacy of Correspondence- Anyone can communicate with anyone without any forms
of ‘eavesdropping ’. In an online setup, the conversations between two people must be
‘encrypted’

3. Data Privacy- This represents all the photos, music, documents etc owned by a person,
not communicated to anyone else.

4. Financial Privacy- This represents everyone’s personal financial information like the
wealth, debt, expenditure, income, etc. It must not be disclosed to others without any legal
justification

5. Privacy of Identity- This is the privacy that is allows us to go through our normal life
without surveillance. There must be a minimal requirement for showcasing the identity
cards or being tracked by CCTV cameras.

6. Location Privacy- It must be a legal right for anyone to not be obligated disclose their
location to the government unless operating under judicial instructions. If an innocent
individual chooses to not share their location, he/she must not be penalized.

7. Territorial Privacy- This is the type of privacy that gives the owner the right to enjoy
their property exclusively, without any trespass. This extends to their pockets, bags, cars,
etc.

With privacy being such an integral part of one’s life, it has been often overlooked by the
judicial system, society, and the individuals themselves. According to the Global Surveillance
Index conducted by a research firm, Compritech, India was ranked third worst for data
privacy in 2020, with a score of 2.4 out of 5. For just some coupons or other baits, Indians are
ready to compromise on their entire sensitive personal data like home addresses, marital
status, political opinions, phone numbers, religious beliefs, etc. There is a need for awareness.
Also, even though right to privacy is a fundamental right, the Supreme Court failed to define
concisely what it is, creating scope for ambiguity, which must be revised/resolved. There
have not been any effective and concrete awareness campaigns by the government to ensure

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everyone’s right to privacy, even though it is such an important aspect our one’s life.

Laws and Legal Remedy

There are a number laws which if not outright mention the right for physical and digital
privacy, provide scope for legal remedy i.e. Individuals who feel that their rights have been
violated by individuals, corporations can file a case in the courts. Below are a few provisions
mentioned-

 Article 21- Protection of life and personal liberty

This is also known as one of the most important articles as it is multi-dimensional given the
scope of the words “life” and “liberty”. The right to privacy is a part of it and cases can be
filed if someone is found intruding in someone’s physical space.

 Information Technology Amendment Act, 2008

It regulates the cyberspace in India and provides laws regarding different aspects of cyber law
for digital privacy.-.

1. Section 43(A): Compensation for failure to protect data

The Corporates shall be liable to pay damages, if found negligent in

implementing and maintaining reasonable security practices for the aggrieved
person to protect their data.

2. Section 66(E): Punishment for violation of privacy.

Whoever, publishes or transmits the image of a private area of any person

without consent shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to three
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 years or with fine not exceeding two lakh rupees, or with both.

3. Section 72(A): Punishment for Disclosure of information in breach of lawful

contract

Whoever shares someone’s personal information with the intent to cause

wrongful without the consent of the person, shall be punished with imprisonment
for three years or with fine upto five lakh rupees.

Apart from Indian legislation, it must been observed that the right to privacy has been
accepted by foreign legislations such as Article 12 of Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (1948) which says that no one should face any arbitrary interference with their
privacy, home, correspondence, family or any attack on their reputation, everyone is
protected under the law against such issues.

Judgements Regarding the Right to Privacy

There are a few judgements which showcase the evolution of privacy laws in India which
eventually led to its getting a status of a fundamental right-

 Right to Privacy was most explicitly defined in Unni Krishnan v State of A.P 1 where the
Supreme Court numbered the twelve meaning of right to life; and right to privacy was
exclusively one of them.

 The inclusion of privacy of an individual as a fundamental right has been under

speculation for a long time. In M.P.Sharma and Others v. Satish Chandra 2 it was concluded
that the right to privacy is not a part of Fundamental Rights and further treating it as an
alien concept to Indian laws.

 While in the case of case, Mr.‘X’ v. Hospital ‘Z’3,the Supreme Court stated that the ‘Right
to Privacy’ is an essential aspect of human life but not an absolute right in India.

 After much consideration the Supreme Court held that the right to privacy is a fundamental
constitutional right flowing from the right to life and personal liberty under Article 14, 19
and 21. This was derived from the revolutionary landmark judgement of Justice K.S.
Puttaswamy Vs. Union Of India4 on 24 August 2017

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Suggestions to Establish Physical and Digital Privacy
Since there is lack of awareness of the people about their rights towards privacy, especially in
the digital space, as well as a lack of proper legislation by the Government, there a few
suggestions for both which would be prudential in the long run-

For the Government

 Since India is a vast country with a growing population of digitally literate

individuals, it must adopt some policies from the framework of the Data Protection
Directive of the European Union, the terminology is holistic and apt and leave less
grounds for speculation.

 There must be autonomy over the data of Indian users, and to ensure this, they must
issue orders to companies who collect the information of indian users to set up servers
within the country

 An important aspect of the right to privacy is the right to be forgotten and there must
be a mechanism in place which ensures that after anyone’s personal data is
processed/used, it must be deleted, this would prevent individuals being a part of any
meta data or being targeted by the data owners.

 There must be ‘express consent’ on websites which extracts the user’s personal data
where the user has the right to choose the sharing of their personal data, hence must
made mandatory.

For Individuals
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 After understanding the rights of every individual regarding their physical and online privacy,
everyone must some prudential steps to safeguard their interests-

 Prudential sharing of information online- Since most of the population are on some social
media platform, they must show their wisdom while determining what they share out there,
as these companies tend to track the user’s interaction habits and store the information
shared. It is only viable to share information which is not sensitive or could harm the
individuals.

 Right to Information- This can be used as a checking mechanism to check whether the
user’s data is stored prudentially by any government authority. Section 6(2) of RTI Act of
2005 also ensures that it is the duty of the authority to hide user’s data who use their
website.

 Follow a Strong Password Regiment- Use strong passwords which would have a blend of
alphabet-numeric with special symbols, for example, a password should be something like
“$Rrojb2*2059!” in order not be cracked and enable a two-factor authentication.

 Check Social Privacy Policy and Setting- All websites have displayed their privacy
settings and policies regarding their which allow the users to check the use of their what is
done with their data and they can control, by themselves, if they want to share their data.

 Beware of Scams- The users should be smart, not to fall for the ‘Freebies’, ‘Get Rich
Quick’, ‘No Interest Credit Cards’ and others such phishing attacks, as they are fronts for
collecting and selling our personal data.

 Protect phone number- Every individual must never share their phone numbers anywhere
online as there are sources for extracting all personal data from just the phone number, not
to forget the thousands of unnecessary calls and text messages.

Conclusion
With the technological and lifestyle advances, the world has come closer which is inevitably
let to intrusion in everyone’s private lives. It is essential to keep a check on the functioning of
the things around us. We should follow the principle of “Caveat Emptor” whenever we
decide to use online platforms, subjecting our personal data. Only if a person does not feel
continuously watched and that their freedom is violated, they can function in. The uniformity
and transparency of personal data, online or offline, is very essential to observe society
evolve as a whole sustainably in the long run. Along with this, government should take
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 responsibility of a person’s privacy and personal information, coming up with laws and
regulations protecting everyone’s fundamental rights to life and personal liberty.

References and Citations

Case Laws

1. Unni Krishnan, J.P. And Ors. vs State Of Andhra Pradesh And Ors,1993 AIR 2178, 1993 SCR (1) 594

2. M. P. Sharma And Others vs Satish Chandra, 1954 AIR 300, 1954 SCR 1077

3. Mr.‘X’ v. Hospital ‘Z’, AIR 1999 SC 495

4. Justice K.S. Puttaswamy Vs. Union Of India, (2017) 10 SCC 1

Journal Articles

 Kumaraguru, P. and Cranor, L., 2005, May. Privacy in India: Attitudes and awareness.
In International

 workshop on privacy enhancing technologies (pp. 243-258). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

 Brahmbhatt, B.J., 2010, March. Position and perspective of privacy laws in India. In 2010 AAAI
Spring Symposium Series.

 Greenleaf, G., 2012. Global data privacy laws: 89 countries, and accelerating. privacy laws &
business international report, (115).

 Srinivasan, J., Bailur, S., Schoemaker, E. and Seshagiri, S., 2018. Privacy at the margins| The
poverty of privacy: Understanding privacy trade-offs from identity infrastructure users in
India. International Journal of Communication, 12, p.20.

 Gupta, A., Mittal, P., Gupta, P.K. and Bansal, S., 2022. Implication of Privacy Laws and Importance
of ICTs to Government Vision of the Future. In International Conference on Innovative
Computing and Communications (pp. 383-391). Springer, Singapore.

Web Sources

 https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/data-shared-sold-whats-done/

 https://inc42.com/buzz/india-ranked-third-worst-for-data-privacy-in-compritech-global-
surveillance-index/

 eur- ex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX%3A31995L0046%3Aen%3AHTML

 https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/opinions/why-india-has-introduced-the-new-personal-
data-protection-bill/

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 https://www.natlawreview.com/article/data-privacy-standards-issued-india-legal-compliance-or-
new-brand-differentiatorz

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