RIGHT TO PRIVACY
Privacy is always a debatable topic over time. It is a subject of controversy and interest in recent years. The most prominent thing about privacy is that none has a very clear definition of privacy.
The definition of privacy keeps changing from time to time. Privacy is said to be an inherent right which is attached to the life of a person. It is a fundamental human right recognized by the United Nation and many other countries. Under the Constitution of India, privacy is not a guaranteed right but Supreme Court has said that in Article 21 with the Right to life, privacy is also protected as an intrinsic part. Under the convention of Human Rights Declaration by the UN, Privacy is recognized as a fundamental right.
The creativity of a person is affected or not, whether surveillance of a common man is compulsory for the state. Do we have privacy after in the name of state surveillance we are monitored everywhere and at every step? After privacy not being absolute right, the interference of the state in personal privacy this deep is not moral. When a question arises on state surveillance we have to choose between either security and privacy because the existence of both at the same time is not possible. Legal Definition of privacy may remain the same but the sociological definition of privacy cant remain the same everywhere. In different societies according to there habit privacy may have different meanings. Privacy means that a person has a right to access and control uses of his locations, information, body, and other necessary human well beings.
There is a lot of confusion in the mind when we interpret the definition of Privacy after the introduction of technology rarely anything is now private. For protecting a private thing first we have to understand clearly what is privacy without knowing what to protect how can remain private. “The right to privacy is an aspect of Article 21’s guarantee of personal liberty, and is grounded in the idea that a free and dignified life requires a private sphere.”
The question of why privacy is matters is debatable nowadays. A person does some expressive activities like dancing like mad and wild singing mostly when they are alone. When they discover that someone is watching them this fear makes them immediately stop the thing that he or she is doing. There are things that a person wants to do only when he is not watched by anyone. When people knowthat someone is watching them they seem to act properly and due to this fear of being watched by anyone else don’t let people do things which they want to do. Mass surveillance is also the same debatable topic as it is supported by the people saying that it is going to be harmful only to those who are engaged in bad activities. As they have a reason to hide from people and to concern about their privacy. It is not going to harm anyone who is not involved in any wrong activity. It means that there are two types of people in the world the good one who goes to the office, come home, play with their children and watch television they use the internet for learning the new language, reading a newspaper and not for learning how to make a bomb. The bad people are those who are terrorists and commit the crime and indulge in violent activity and due to this, they want to hide things because that they have to hide things and have to worry about their privacy. The good people as not doing any bad activity, not indulge in any wrongdoing don’t have to concern about there privacy or being in a surveillance state. By analyzing different cases courts analyzed that we have to balance the claims of privacy against three main interests which are legally recognized; public morality, crime prevention, and public safety. The concept of the Panopticon state was given by Jeremy Bentham. This panoptic device is a building whose structure is as follow, the building is circular. There is a cell on each floor of the building and in the center of that building, there is a tower. The window of each cell is designed in a way that a person inside the cell may construe the light and air from outside, but he can not see the view of the outside world. From the tower, at the center, each cell can be seen but the inhabitant of the cell will not be able to see the happening at the tower. This building is closed and surrounded by the walls.
Commonly this is known as the Panopticon Prison structure where prisoners are in the cell and the person at the tower is policemen. The policemen can see each of the cells from the top of the tower and as the prisoners in the cell are unable to see him, they will always be in a fear that policemen are watching him, therefore, they will not do anything bad. This concept is a general principle of construction that can be used universally as an instrument for surveillance. Privacy and Liberty or Security what to choose, when liberty and privacy are traded in the name of security. With this digital advancement, surveillance has been not that tough but it is problematic for the common citizen. Satellite monitoring, CCTV Video monitoring, scanners at the airport, and bio-metric technologies are some of the surveillance systems which a common person can not deny for providing information.
While exchanging your information on cyberspace no one can be sure about the information that he or she is sharing or providing through the medium of cyberspace is private. Every person should be concern about the privacy of once own and the validity and effectiveness of agreement among the service providers and you that the thing between both of them will be confidential. But who knows that accounts that are protected from User Ids and Passwords and phone calls done in a private room where you are alone, they can also be accessed by the state without your consent and about which you may never know until told. In this era of digitization and globalization, even data is protected with proper diligence and care, then also there are chances of leaking of that data. The definition of Privacy is changed with technological advancement. For the protection of the state and its citizens, many of the private activities and information are made compulsory to be made public or to provide them to the government. It may be unethical but for protection, the state starts surveillance on the activities of their citizen. Some actions are compulsory for the government for effective functioning which overrides some basic rights for mass goods and happiness. Privacy is not an absolute right, the border for privacy can be redrawn according to the circumstances. So, it is not very clear that where and when we can expect that at any given situation legal validity of Privacy Exist. Even after existence, it is confusing about the balance of privacy against crime prevention, national security, public interest, and morality.
On a final note, we have to choose between our rights and security. The question here arises that privacy can be put security at the stack because it is very tough to provide freedom and security both at the same time. The century in which we all are living is online, the bank accounts, photos, documents, business details, etc. Whether they may be protected by the passwords or not they can be accessed by anyone because they are on the internet. The security of the things on the Internet is questionable, it can be accessed by the government as well. There is no privacy for a person on the internet also. If privacy is not this much important to a person then why a man used to spend money on increasing the privacy of there life. People used to share things which he wants to share but if his private things are being monitored then what right he is having as a citizen. We make things private because we want our self away from the judgmental eyes of an individual or society. The monitoring thing done for security purposes is so interfering in a common man’s life that people used to act dramatically when they come to know that they are being watched. The people who used to hide things are not necessarily bad
Author: jageshwar pateriya,
jagran lakecity university/student