Enforcement of privacy right in the ICT era is an important part of protection of human rights in cyberspace. Privacy rights must be analysed along with some allied rights like data protection rights, data security rights, right to information, etc.
As far as India is concerned, we have no dedicated privacy laws in India and privacy rights in India, data protection laws in India, data security laws in India, cyber security laws in India, etc. Privacy rights and laws in India are required for protecting human rights in cyberspace that are presently missing in India.
The matter is already pending in Supreme Court of India. The Supreme Court of India must expand privacy rights in India as Indian Parliament has failed to provide privacy laws in India despite pressing needs. Further, the Supreme Court of India must also clear the relationship between national security and right to information in India.
Instead of providing privacy rights to Indian citizens, the Indian parliament has curtailed the same through bringing amendments in the information technology act, 2000 (IT Act 2000) of India. The IT Act, 2000 is the sole cyber law of India that urgently requires to be repealed.
Indian government is suppressing privacy rights in India for its own purposes. Even the right to information act has been diluted to a great extent to keep many governmental functions out of its ambit. Intelligence agencies of India are operating without any parliamentary oversight and diluting right to information in such a situation is complete endorsement to growing e-surveillance in India.
It is high time for Supreme Court of India to prevent further mutilations of almost non existing privacy rights in India.