RE: FOR ATTN : SHRI Sadanand Gowdaji

Privacy  does  not  live  here  !

Once upon a time it did , but no more

A time when people lived on the ground and visited each other in their offices to conduct business or in their homes for small talk

Then around 1981 , came IBM PC ( and clones called, “ IBM Compatibles “ ) , followed by Internet around 1990

That started the deluge !

·         E-Mailing / Messaging  Apps ( one – to – one / one – to – many )

·         Search Engines / Job Portals

·         Social Media sites / E Commerce sites / Aggregator sites of every type

·         Hardware ( Smart phones / Tablets / Laptops / Wrist Bands )

·         Spiders / Crawlers / Cookies / Mobile Apps / Chat Bots

·         Headsets ( AR / VR ) / Hepatic Gloves / Holograms / Google Glasses

·         Artificial Intelligence / Cloud / IP V.6

·         Robots ( to give me medicines or keep me company in 85^th year of life )

And , with or without my permission , these “ apparitions / contraptions “ captured – and made available for everyone to view – EVERYTHING  about me ( - for monetary considerations or in exchange for INFORMATION about the users ! )

This was information about me , which , until their arrival , was known to only a few .

Information such as :

·         Who I am ( name )

·         Where and when, I was born / who were my parents

·         Where I grew up / where I live currently

·         Do I live in a rented place or in an owned flat

·         What Schools / Colleges I attended ( - and degrees I acquired )

·         What Companies I worked for and salaries I got

·         How I travel to work ( own vehicle or public transport )

·         Where I go for my holidays / what books I read

·         Who I married and who are my children ( - and how many )

·         If divorced , how much alimony I pay and to whom

·         Where I invest my money ( Banks – Funds – Equity etc )

·         How much I have borrowed from whom and for how long

·         My Credit ranking  ( including my spending history / card wise – wallet wise )

·         What are my eating ( food ) preferences and the restaurants I visit

·         What I do for entertainment ( Music / Movies / Videos )

·         What clothes I wear and how often do I buy

·         Who are my friends and how often I phone / text them / meet them

·         What ailments I suffer from and what medicines I take

·         What minor offences ( traffic ) or crimes that I have committed

·         What elections I have contested ( won and lost )

·         Who are my doctors / lawyers / brokers / agents etc

·         What web sites I visit and how often and for how long

·         What do I search on the Net / What RSS feeds I subscribe to

·         What TV channels I watch and Radio Stations that I listen to

·         Every photo of mine ever taken ( selfie or otherwise )

·         Every phone call that I ever made or received

·         Every Email / Text message that I ever sent or received

·         Every blog / comment that I ever posted on the Web

·         Every face-to-face communication that I engaged in

And when that ( dreaded ? ) SINGULARITY arrives ( when Computer / Internet / Artificial Intelligence combination , is expected to get smarter than the human beings ) , expect the following :

·         Even things about me , which I may have left out in the above list , will be known to the GOD( Give Our Data ) residing in the CLOUD (no need for any permission )

·         That O3 ( Omnipresent / Omniscient / Omnipotent ) , will dictate my life

·         Hopefully , O3  will be governed by Issac Asimov’s “ 3 Laws of Robotics “ 

·         ARIHANT will ensure the survival of HUMANITY

     https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/10/fast-forward-to-future-3-f.html

Postman does not knock at my door anymore

He knows , “ Privacy does not live here “

22  July  2017

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

Warm Regards,

Hemen Parekh

+91 98675 50808

3P Consultants \ Strategic Human Resources Consultants

From: Hemen Parekh [mailto:hcp@recruitguru.com]
Sent: 20 July 2017 10:41
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Subject: RE: FOR ATTN : SHRI Sadanand Gowdaji

#RighttoPrivacy  !  Thank You Your Honors  !

=================

Thank you Your Honours ,

Thank you for taking time out to read my following E mail sent to you [ supremecourt@nic.in ], yesterday morning .

Privacy ?  Parish the Thought !

https://myblogepage.blogspot.in/2017/07/privacy-parish-thought.html

Today’s Hindustan Times [ 20 July ], carries following report :

“ Right to Privacy isn’t absolute, observes the Supreme Court “

A rare 9-judge bench of the Supreme Court said the  RIGHT TO PRIVACY IS NOT ABSOLUTE, making its first observations on Wednesday as it began hearing on an issue that could have a sweeping impact on issues such as the Aadhaar scheme and the law criminalising homosexuality.

The bench began the process to decide if privacy can be regarded as a fundamental right guaranteed to all Indians, a question that arose from the legal challenge to the Aadhaar programme that activists say impinges on the right to privacy.

“ If privacy is about right to make a choice, then choice in what areas ?  Family, sexual orientation, gender identity, surveillance, what all? ”  , it observed.

In addition to the Section 377 case, the SC’s ruling on privacy will impact a case against mobile communication application WhatsApp in which petitioners have opposed its policy to share user data with its parent Facebook.

‘ NEED TO DEFINE PRIVACY ’

During the hearing the bench felt that right to privacy was too “amorphous” a term and said that to recognise privacy as a definite right, it had to first define it.

“How do we  DEFINE  privacy ?

What are its CONTENTS  ?

Its  CONTOURS  ? 

How can the State  REGULATE  privacy ?

What  OBLIGATIONS  does the State have to PROTECT a person’s privacy ? ”  

Justice Chandrachud asked the lawyers representing petitioners in Aadhaar case.

AN ATTEMPT TO DEFINE THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY MAY CAUSE  MORE HARM THAN GOOD, the bench said.

The observations may or may not be a part of the court’s final ruling.

Justice Chandrachud also posed several questions on data protection in the age of social media, saying ,

SOCIAL MEDIA  did not exist when the  CONSTITUTION  was made.

IF PEOPLE HAVE PUT THEMSELVES IN THE PUBLIC REALM USING TECHNOLOGY, IS THAT NOT A SURRENDER OF THEIR RIGHT TO PRIVACY?,” the judge said, asking if right to privacy is non-negotiable.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan placed before the bench a statement made by a minister in March admitting privacy was “probably a fundamental right” and “part of individual liberty.”

Divan said in the internet age, one should have the right of  “ informational self-determination ”. “ I should know how much I should put forward and not be compelled,” he submitted.

He complained there was hardly any data protection in this digital age, leading to a compromise in privacy.

Former solicitor general Gopal Subramanium said right to liberty and lead a life of dignity includes the right to privacy.

“The right to liberty means the right to make personal choices, the right to develop one’s personality, one’s aura, one’s thinking and actions, the freedom of religion and conscience, the freedom to believe or not believe,” he told the bench, which will continue hearing the case on Thursday.

Thank you Your Honours ;

Thank you for making me , a  “ party ( in absentia ) to the on-going litigation “

My humble submission :

If those who drafted our Constitution in 1947 , could not have foreseen the CONTOURS that SOCIAL MEDIA will acquire in 2017 , it was understandable

But in 2017 , when 10 year old children are coding Mobile Apps employing Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality / Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Neural Networks / Hepatic Interfaces / Holographic Projections etc , would anyone understand if lawyers / jurists ( of this Software Super Power , India ), decided to bury their heads in the sand , hoping that they will , somehow escape getting buried under the inevitable Sand Storm of TECHNOLOGY ?

20  July  2017

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs