The 4th Estate

The ‘Internet’ has today become an essential part of our lives and revolutionised the way communication and trade take place far beyond the ambit of national and international borders. It has, however, also allowed unscrupulous criminals to misuse the Internet and exploit it for committing numerous cybercrimes pertaining to pornography, gambling, lottery, financial frauds, identity thefts, drug trafficking, and data theft, among others. Cyberspace is under both perceived and real threat from various state and non-state actors. ‘World internet users’ have increased  by 826%, from 16 million in 1995 to 3,270 million in the last 15 years, making  about 46% of the world population. Internet has emerged as a preferred medium of expression of free speech, conducting trade and business, running daily errands like controlling multipurpose home devices thus generating large volumes of personal data. This data includes names, addresses, mobile numbers, dates of birth, emails, geographic locations, health records like BMI and can aid in various social, political and commercial purposes.  This big data, which has been disclosed voluntarily or incidentally through interactive (e.g., Online Surveys) or technological (e.g., Cookies) means has high potential of secondary uses. The protection of privacy and confidentiality of this personal data at residence and in motion within and across the borders is a cause of concern more particularly in modern economies where the data is a treasure- trove for businesses. The current debate in India on “whether privacy (including data privacy) should be a fundamental right or just a right or just a concept purportedly seems to be advanced in the light of privacy law in Europe and US, who have adopted divergent approaches to this issue. However, transposition of these foreign laws to Indian scenario neither takes into account the socio-economic fabric of the country nor its present and future economic interests.