India's Top Court Rules Privacy a Fundamental Right in Blow To Government

India's top court unanimously ruled on Thursday that individual privacy is a fundamental right, a verdict that will impact everything from the way companies handle personal data to the roll-out of the world's largest biometric ID card program. From a report: A nine-member bench of India's Supreme Court announced the ruling in a big setback for the Narendra Modi-led government, which argued that privacy was not a fundamental right protected by the constitution. The ruling comes against the backdrop of a large multi-party case against the mandatory use of national identity cards, known as Aadhaar, as an infringement of privacy. There have also been concerns over breaches of data. Critics say the ID cards link enough data to create a comprehensive profile of a person's spending habits, their friends and acquaintances, the property they own and a trove of other information. "This is a blow to the government, because the government had argued that people do not have a right to privacy," said Prashant Bhushan, a senior lawyer involved in the case.

Comments

"argued that privacy was not a fundamental right"

[K. S. Kyosuke]

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

India ratified this. So what's the big deal, Modi?

Re:"Progressives" pissed off!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a right given to you by the government. What's so difficult to understand about that?

In the United States (I know we're talking primarily about India here) rights are considered to have been endowed in all people by their Creator, not the government. The government is expected to protect rights that we all have naturally. It's a subtle but important distinction.