How do you define Privacy?

The concept of Privacy in India has been notoriously difficult to pin down into words, though we all have an understanding of what it means in one way or the other. We saw some Supreme Court cases which try and define privacy as the “right to be left alone”, but is this enough?

Apparently not says the Central Information Commission (CIC) of India. In a ruling, the Chief Information Commissioner said that any intrusion physical or otherwise (italics mine) into the private affairs of another which would be offensive to a reasonable person is an offense. Based on this definition, the commission refused to divulge details of a private person in one particular affair.

This definition is interesting. It was formulated based on the US Restatement of the Law on Torts and is meant to allow lawmakers to enact provisions based on it. Will parliament do so? Two implications come to mind:

First, if a National ID card is implemented, does it prevent a policeman from stopping me on the road arbitrarily and asking me to show it to him or her? Does it prevent an establishment (such as a theater) from demanding to examine it when I enter? Is that an intrusion? Second, does it allow the government to track my movements and activities financial or otherwise (if it could) in the name of security?

These are questions that I look forward to the lawmakers clarifying sooner or later.

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2 thoughts on “How do you define Privacy?”

  1. actually indians are still, to a lot extent ignorant about their fundamental rights. right to privacy is an implicit one, so it gets tougher to be realised this right.

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