Common Sense Law

PRIVACY BILL OF 2011 & ONWARDS: INDIAN ATTEMPTS AT PROTECTION The Privacy Bill, 2011 1 (the “2011 Bill”) was meant to be an omnibus law to deal with defining, and circumscribing the right, the very first of many that were to come as we shall learn below! So the 2011 Bill intended “ to provide for the right to privacy to citizens of India and regulate the collection, maintenance, use, and dissemination of their personal information and provide for penal action for violation of such right and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. ” 2 Despite the ruling of the Supreme Court in People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) v Union of India 3 that held that the Right to Privacy was a Fundamental Right under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, the 2011 Bill under S.3(1) sought to grant the Right to Privacy to ‘every individual’. S.3(2) defined inclusively the said right. 4 The Right was defined expansively to include every aspect of an...

HISTORY OF PRIVACY IN THE WESTERN WORLD Privacy as we understand it today, is merely no more than 500 years old. Traditionally, hunter gatherer communities lived in such close proximity that privacy wasn’t a concern. Sex, breastfeeding, bathing, grooming, etc. were all familial and tribal activities without walls for privacy. Housing was merely a shelter of rocks and caves, with many cramped up, close by, to weather the cold, and/or keep safe from wild animals around fires at night, while the morning brought sunlight for all to see the so called ‘private’ acts. Agrarian communities later developed, and huts or some semblance of walls slowly emerged to provide privacy from ‘others’ – a concept that came about simultaneously with those walls to provide a distinction between family and tribe, relatives and neighbours. Homes still did not have internal walls that create rooms. Like their tribal ancestors, the Greeks displayed some preference for privacy. Us...