There is no doubt that concepts like Privacy can be explained in a few pages of articles or books, as it has come to be one of the most complex and debatable topics in the current scenario. Through this debate kit, we attempt to introduce readers to the different facets of Privacy and provide an exhaustive list of readings from the EPW archives, which enables the readers to delve deeper into this important concept.

The concept of privacy in the legal and political context can be analysed as a family resemblance concept because many issues interlink to define what we mean when we speak of the concept of privacy. Judith Harvis Thomson, in her essay titled “The Right to Privacy” writes that the right to privacy could translate into the right to be left alone; however, the definition of this right is derivative and embedded in the instances of the violation of this right. Privacy is an important aspect of a citizen’s life in a democracy, where citizens must be respected to live their life outside of the state’s gaze and jurisdiction. However, privacy in any state is not just a question of to live and let live but is more nuanced. Defining privacy complicates the idea of what it means to have a divide between the public and the personal. We see that privacy concerns our daily whereabouts, how we live, who we live with, what we eat, what we wear, our activity online, our sexual preferences and more such core aspects of life.

With respect to India, scholars have claimed that one can trace the concept of Privacy to Dharamshahstras, Upanishads and especially Kautilayas Arthashahstra. However, the linguistic terminology used might have been different. In modern times the right to privacy was never a part of the fundamental rights, but the discussion to include it within the ambit of Fundamental Rights was always a part of the Constituent Assembly Debates. The right to privacy thus remained a subset of the right to life and liberty. Until 24th August 2017, when a watershed judgement was made which declared the right to privacy as the fundamental right. This was Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) & Anr. v. Union of India & Ors.27. Only after a long battle of legal interpretations was the right to privacy made a fundamental right to be protected under Part III of the Constitution of India. The judgement also declared that the right to privacy would come with reasonable restrictions. The Government had already formed a committee headed by Justice B.N. Srikrishna in 2017 to look into the various aspects of privacy and give recommendations for data protection which eventually culminated in the draft Personal Data Protection Bill.

This repository covers over 100 articles related to many perspectives of the privacy debate. It looks into issues of data protection, big data, LGBTQ rights and more nuanced aspects relating to privacy in the education sector and our digital footprint in the newly developing online health sector.

Play the panopticon game to save your data from being spotted by the watcher. If you fail to escape, your data is no longer yours!