Privacy by choice

Govt must take a clear stand on the right to privacy

A nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court is hearing a case to establish whether the so-called right to privacy is a fundamental right. This is in response to a petition claiming that the collection and sharing of biometric information, as required under the Aadhaar scheme, is a breach of an individual’s “fundamental” right to privacy. At present, however, this Bench, which includes the chief justice as well, is not entertaining specific queries about the use of Aadhaar or the possibility of privacy infringement under other circumstances, for example, data collected by social media firms such as Facebook or data mapping