The issues with maximum data and minimum privacy

Anniversaries, when meaningful, are not mechanical celebrations played out each year, but prompt deeper reflection. This month marks not only 75 years of Independence but also five years of the right to privacy judgment. On August 24, 2017, the Supreme Court reaffirmed privacy to be a fundamental right, linking it to each fundamental right under the Constitution. It prescribed tests that became legal qualifiers for ensuring an effective framework for state and corporate accountability to ensure the autonomy, liberty and dignity for all Indians.

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This is a criminal attack on privacy

Springing a surprise, the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Ajay Mishra Teni, on Monday introduced the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill 2022. The Bill was neither put up for pre-legislative consultation nor indicated in the session’s legislative agenda in Parliament. Seemingly technical, it is a legislative proposal that undermines the privacy of not only persons convicted of crime but also every ordinary Indian citizen as it proposes replacing a law that is over a 100 years old.

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When privacy was made supreme

The month of August marks a momentous event in the story of our nationhood as we celebrate our independence from colonial rule. The very basis was a constitutional choice, which civil rights lawyer K G Kannabiran put it as the “termination of imposed suzerainty”. Two years ago, this sentiment seemed to be achieved with the historic decision of the Supreme Court in the Puttaswamy Privacy case, in which nine judges unanimously affirmed the fundamental right to privacy. This newspaper reported the apex court’s decision on the front page with the electric headline — Privacy Supreme.

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