PRIVACY AND SOCIAL MEDIA

In today’s arena, Social media plays very crucial role in connecting with people in all over the
world. The need recognizes the importance of social media in day today’s life. The use of social
media has become more prominent in the last decade. Social media networks, such as Facebook,
allow people around the world to connect with friends, professionals, and strangers in a way that
has never been seen before. The introduction of new social sites have changed the way people
present information about themselves. There’re people who use social media to promote
businesses, rather than just connecting with the people. Because the use of social media is
common, it is appropriate to ask if users are waiver certain privacy rights. Users are more willing
to trust social media personal details, such as location, without asking what happened to data
after networks have been collected by Social media company. Social media offers some privacy
measures in this regard. Therefore, the post will focus on how secure it is to share personal
information online, the crimes that are taking place, the issues in it, the laws regarding social
media privacy in India and specific recommendations regarding the formulation of such laws.

Privacy has been well described “as the condition or the state of being free from public attention
to intrusion into or interference with one’s acts or decisions.”1 In India, however, whether the
right to privacy is a fundamental right or not, has always been disputed. In the case of M.P
Sharma vs Satish Chandra2 was held that the right to privacy is not a fundamental right under the
constitution. In Kharak Singh vs State of U.P3 province, it was also held that “privacy was not a
guaranteed constitutional right”. However, it was believed that Article 21 (the right to life) is a
creation of the remaining human rights and recognizes the common legal right to privacy.
However, after the case of Maneka Gandhi the situation has changed completely. Maneka
Gandhi and R.C. Cooper’s case went on to say that freedom and liberty do not apply and are
nothing but the right to privacy.

Thus, the case had a high rate of judicial activists acting as Marshall in a new era to increase the
magnitude of the right to health and personal freedom. Over the course of Supreme court’s
jurisprudence on the right to life & personal liberty under Article 21. In order to expand the

1
BLACK’S LAW DICTIONARY 1315 (9TH ED.2009)
2
1954 AIR 300, 1954 SCR 1077
3
1963 AIR 1295, 1964 SCR (1) 332
scope & nature of protection under article 21. The use of dignity principle to configure the right
to life with personal liberty under Article 21, going beyond for protection of limbs & faculties
the rather the right to life included within scope of “right to live with human dignity”.4

Social media is an online form of communication. Many other types of social media such as
blogs, small blogs, wikis social networking sites, widgets, visible worlds are also available. But
social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Orkut, and Myspace have become
more important in the last few years. But in order to use a social networking site and share other
people's posts, one must first create a profile. The main purpose of these social networks is to
establish intelligence in the physical world. But few users were unaware that this boon was
associated with crime as well.

The concept of cybercrime came up in the mid-1990’s and climbed the ladder of success to a
whole new level. But we are the ones who have signed a contract with the Devil and now our
privacy is shattered. IP address, keywords used in search, websites visited seemingly harmless,
from the information we share on social media, to online transactions, cookies that collect user
browser history, mobile subscriptions - personal information about each user's internet use. The
site quickly records our information such as the Amazon.in case5

They do it so because, the information they provide, they become more attractive to potential the
advertisers. As a result, theft cases, sexual harassment, anonymous reputation, cyber breach and
corruption have begun to gain momentum. It is reported that there are scams like koobface,
which steal the details of people using Facebook and steal from the wrong people. Version 5 of
HTML code is said to give advertising companies access to online users for tasks such as texts,
images, emails and much more.

Often, the younger ones are the ones who make the most of it. Nowadays, they do not hesitate to
share their personal information with strangers. This is due to a lack of mental maturity, lack of
awareness about personal data credentials and ability to make right and wrong judgments. As a
result, sex offenders and identity thieves could easily be hunted down.

4
Francis Coralie Mullin v Administrator, Union Territory of Delhi, (1981) 1 SCC 608
5
Karnika Seth, computers, internet and new technology laws 276 (1st Ed. 2012)
Twitter itself has admitted that they had previously taken pictures of their users and logged into
their website database to learn more about their users. Facebook’s oxymoronic status is evident
when it first states that it contains all the content we post to Facebook and on the other hand
states that we users allow Facebook to use any IP content we post about Facebook. People have
also been reported to have committed suicide. 6 after their embarrassing videos were posted on
YouTube. This failure of social media and daily crime has forced us to think seriously about
what we really want to share and how our information is treated. Therefore, privacy policies
must be carefully read before granting our consent. However, Facebook & Instagram has helped
by introducing blocking, reporting, protection etc. options. Twitter has the option to share
information only with followers, For securing the right of users.

In the case of Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) Vs Union of India7 The right to privacy recognized
as a fundamental right in Article 21 of the constitution. To do this is a meaningful right, it is the
duty of the state to keep the data, protective framework that while protecting citizens from the
dangers they go to confidentiality of information from state and non-state actors, serves the
common good. It is the understanding of the provincial function that the Committee must work
while creating a data protection framework.

Violations of privacy in India is increasing at an alarming rate. And the privacy of 130 crores
Indians at risk. Cyber crime can not be constrained by geographical location & the crimes can
not be deterred by local law. government needs to come with some well drafted legislation on
digital security which is on social media. So, the right to privacy of every citizen can be secured
by the state. This is high time for India to prioritize privacy and see as most important aspect of
security concern. With the advent of social media, the new Internet privacy term has come to
light. There is no specific law for Internet privacy and data protection. However, our constitution
provided Article 21 as a key to insufficient privacy to provide adequate data protection.
However, in the year 2000, the legislature made an effort to recognize the privacy issues of the
social media and currently India's most comprehensive legal provisions for privacy on the
Internet is the Information Technology Act, 2000. Provisions that specifically protect users'
privacy include Sections 43, 66, 66F and 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the
rules of the Act.
6
Ibid.
7
MANU/SCOR/21716/2015