Right To Privacy

Hide name of those acquitted in a case: Delhi HC to portals, search engines

The Delhi High Court has observed that no public interest can be served by keeping information alive on the Internet after quashing criminal proceedings against a person and asked portals and search engines to mask the name of a man who has been acquitted in a case. The high court said the right to privacy is a fundamental right and forms an intrinsic part of Article 21 of the Constitution and the concept of right to privacy incorporates the right to be forgotten. "In the age of the internet, every piece of information that finds its way to the internet, gains permanence. The need to allow the masking of names of individuals acquitted of any offence or when criminal proceedings against such persons are quashed emanates from the most basic notions of proportionality and fairness," Justice Amit Mahajan said. The high court said while access to information is a fundamental aspect of democracy, the same cannot be divorced from the need to balance the right to information of the public .

'Right to Privacy' petitioner Justice Puttaswamy passes away at 98

Former Karnataka High Court judge Justice K S Puttaswamy, who played a pivotal role in declaration of right to privacy as a fundamental right from the Supreme Court in 2017, passed away at his Bengaluru residence on Monday. He was 98. Justice Puttaswamy was the lead petitioner who had moved the apex court in 2012 challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar scheme as being violative of the privacy right. The Aadhaar scheme subsequently received legislative sanction. In a landmark verdict in August 2017, a nine-judge bench through an unanimous verdict declared the right to privacy a fundamental right under Article 21 (protection of life and personal liberty) of the Constitution. It had underlined privacy to be "the constitutional core of human dignity". Born on February 8, 1926, Puttaswamy studied at Maharaja's College, Mysore and obtained a law degree from Government Law College, Bengaluru. He was enrolled as an advocate in January 1952 and became the Karnataka High Co

Supreme Court to examine plea on 'right to be forgotten': What it means?

'Right to be forgotten' also known as the 'right to erasure' deals with individual rights to have control of the use of personal data by organisations

Sharing live location of accused in return for bail violates privacy: SC

The judgment comes on the heels of the Delhi High Court's conditions for granting interim bail to Frank Vitus, a Nigerian national accused in a drugs case

Seek review of ruling on non-consensual intimate pics: HC to Google, MS

The Delhi High Court on Monday asked Microsoft, which owns 'Bing', and Google to seek a review of an order by a single judge directing them to identify and de-index non-consensual intimate images without requesting for their specific URLs, after the search engine giants filed an appeal against the ruling. The senior counsel for the appellants said unlike in cases of child sexual abuse material, non-consensual intimate images cannot be detected by their current technology and therefore it was not possible for them to comply with the order passed by the single judge in April 2023. Their senior lawyers assured the court a new technology is being developed but it has not yet reached a stage where it can detect such non-consensual content on its own. They said the search engines do not "host" any content, and once an objectionable content has been removed from the site hosting it, it will not appear in search results as well. Stating that "no one can ask you to do the impossible", a ben

US lawmakers propose new rules to protect personal data, strengthen privacy

Two influential lawmakers from opposing parties have crafted a deal on legislation designed to strengthen privacy protections for Americans' personal data. The sweeping proposal announced Sunday evening would define privacy as a consumer right and create new rules for companies that collect and use personal information. It comes from the offices of Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell and Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, both of Washington state. Cantwell chairs the Senate Commerce Committee while McMorris Rodgers leads the House Energy and Commerce Committee. While the proposal has not been formally introduced and remains in draft form, the bipartisan support suggests the bill could get serious consideration. Congress has long discussed ways to protect the personal data regularly submitted by Americans to a wide range of businesses and services. But partisan disputes over the details have doomed previous proposals. According to a one-page outline released Sunday, the bill worked

Ashwini Vaishnaw tables Data Protection Bill, 2023 in Lok Sabha

This bill, when passed, will be the first legislation in the country addressing the digital privacy of the citizens

Former Supreme Court judges who were appointed as governors post-retirement

The appointment of former judges to other constitutional posts has long been a matter of debate in India

CCTV in classrooms does not violate right to privacy: Delhi govt to HC

The Delhi government recently told the High Court that one major reason behind its 2017 decision is to save and secure students from sexual abuse and bullying

Right to privacy also encompasses public servants, says Ashwini Vaishnaw

The conflict between the RTI Act and the draft personal data protection bill needs to be resolved, says the communications minister

Draft DPDP skips 'Right to Privacy', gives govt unchecked powers: CUTS

The draft Digital Personal Data Protection bill has skipped "Right to Privacy" in the preamble and provides unrestrained powers to the government, advocacy group CUTS International has claimed. CUTS said that the draft weakens the regulatory, supervisory, and enforcement architecture by replacing the previously proposed data protection regulator with a board that will be directly in control of the government. "Moving away from its previous version, the bill skips mention of the fundamental right to privacy in its preamble and narrows the scope of the law from data protection to digital personal data protection excluding non-personal data, which is rather desirable. In doing so, the bill takes away the categorisation of personal data, especially sensitive personal data, thereby painting all personal data with the same regulatory brush," CUTS said in a statement. The preamble of the draft Personal Data Protection Act 2018 mentioned of "right to privacy" as "a fundamental right and it

Consumer protection rules: E-tailers may need user nod to share data

E-commerce firms may have to incur higher costs for upgrading tech to comply with norm

Malware found in 5 out of 29 phones, no conclusive evidence of Pegasus: SC

The Supreme Court on Thursday said that out of 29 phones submitted for examination, malware was found in five, but there is no conclusive proof that the spyware was Pegasus

IT Rules: Legal experts weigh in on reasonable curbs to Right to Privacy

Say the new rules do not pass the test of proportionality to justify breaching a user's privacy

'No intention to violate right of privacy': Govt on WhatsApp's lawsuit

'No fundamental right, including the right to privacy, is absolute and it is subject to reasonable restrictions,' says MeitY

WhatsApp goes to court against India's IT rules 'undermining privacy'

Requiring messaging apps to trace chats is asking us to keep a fingerprint of every single message: Company.

WhatsApp revised privacy policy: Justice Singh recuses herself from plea

Justice Singh took objection to an email sent to the Court from WhatsApp and the matter will now be heard by another bench on Monday, January 18

Why reveal names of Covid-19 patients? Involves privacy rights: Bombay HC

A division bench made the observation while hearing a petition filed by two people seeking disclosure of names of coronavirus patients to enable contact tracing and save others from getting infected

New report raises fresh concerns over govt's Aarogya Setu application

The Centre has made the downloading of the app mandatory vide an order dated May 1, 2020 in all public and private offices, as well as in containment zones.

Coronavirus-tracking smartphone apps raise concerns about privacy

Your location data is already likely being used that way by mobile operators to feed traffic information to map apps