PRIVACY IN CYBERSPACE

INTRODUCTION

Every person is born with the right to privacy and the protection of privacy is what must be upheld. Every right comes with a certain restrictions there is no such thing as an absolute even privacy is considered a �myth�. The origin of Privacy can be traced back from British rule to the present age. How the Britishers invaded the privacy of Indian�s, breach their trust and tapped their phone etc. There were certain acts and provision regulated by British government before the independence of India which were exploiting the privacy of citizens instead of protecting it. Soon after independence the issue came into limelight that the respective acts were violating the right to privacy therefore, in order to maintain peace and harmony when India was advancing in technologies the Information Technology Act, 2000 came to protect the very nature of data in cyberspace. Further, some of the amendments were made so ITA, 2008 was introduced to cover up the grey areas but still the amendment act have some loopholes and failed to provide the right to privacy in certain fields.
Privacy is not only a space of an individual but also concerns with the reputation of an individual and to protect that reputation is a legitimate point. When someone discloses information about someone else even though it�s true it may result in clich� and prejudging of an individual. On the other hand people are very secretive about their personal information and do not want to leak any part of that information to the society. Today�s generation is surrounded by technological advancements it is true that these technologies have made life easier but also dependent and peril. In a world of digitalization where there is full exposure of individual information over the internet one must take proper steps to somehow manage and limit the scope of privacy invasion.

MEANING OF PRIVACY

One of the important pillars of a democratic nation is Privacy. It is considered as a fundamental right which is provided in innumerable international conventions and treaties. Privacy is described as a right to be let alone, it hypothesizes the enclave for the private space for individual. “Privacy safeguards an individual�s autonomy and recognizes the ability of the individual to control vital aspects of life”
According to Black�s Law Dictionary; Privacy means “right to be let alone; the right of a person to be free from any unwarranted publicity; the right to live without any interference by the public in matters with which public is not necessarily concerned”.
It is well ascertained by Arthur Miller who was a jurist that it is difficult to define the nature of privacy as it is ephemeral. According to Justice Krishna Iyer, “Personal liberty makes for the worth of human person”

MEANING OF CYBERSPACE

A virtual space who has been given life by the bits which is simply 0 and 1(binary digits). Cyberspace is a manmade virtual space where ideas are transmitted throughdata over computers. The electrical impulse in the computers are guided by the bits because of which computers are able to identify what to do and what not to. It is generally a non-physical land which is created by computers. Nevertheless, the word cyberspace was first used back in 1984 in a book named “Neuromancer” by William Gibson although he first used the word in his book but he also criticized it by saying redolent and meaningless. He further explained cyberspace as “a consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators in every nations”. It is generally made up from a digital network that is used to store, communicate and rather modify the information that is being transmitted through the servers with the help of internet. Cyberspace is a space where netizens (the ones who actively participate in the internet) share their ideas, interact and are involved in many activities that are performed in a social forum. David Holmes said that “individuals do not exist in cyberspace, but in virtual reality”.

CONCEPT OF PRIVACY IN CYBERSPACE
Billions of mobile users download numerous applications to their device. Today there�s an application for almost everything from buying groceries to booking an appointment. On Android user privacy is being protected by not accessing:

1. Restricted actions: restricted actions include the permission to the paired devices and even recording audio.
2. Restricted data: which include the user�s contact information as well as the system rate.

There are few types of permissions categorized by Android they are:

1. Normal permissions: these permissions generally give access to the actions and data that extend beyond the sandbox (that segregate app data and code execution from other apps) it generates low risk in the user�s privacy.
2. Signature permissions: when the requesting application is signed with the same certificate system will grant permission only if the certificate matches and when it does it will by default without notifying the user or without the permission of user grants permission.
3. Install permissions: this type of permission was generally on Android version 5.0 or below where user grants dangerous permission whenever they install or update an application. It also gives a limited access to the restricted data where it slightly affects the system or other applications.
4. Runtime permissions: it is also refer as dangerous permissions, whenever any individual install an application after installation the runtime permission box appear and if an individual allow it will access the restricted data of the user. It will allow the application to access the sensitive information of the user such as location, contacts etc.,
5. Special permissions: it can only be performed by the OEMs and platform. Whenever OEMs and platform want to protect the access to the powerful action they may perform special permissions

On 2011, Google launched a new social networking platform which is known as Google+ but later on it was shut down as on 2018 it leaked a half of billion user�s data and Google didn�t find ease to inform or even report this. According to the Wall Street Journal, “the failure to report was prompted by fear over regulatory scrutiny and damage to the company�s reputation”. Google was consistent that the data was not breach or hacked but they claim it to be a bug which will ultimately allow the data of the users to get exposed. “We found no evidence that any developer was aware of this bug, or abusing the API, and we found no evidence that any Profile data was misused,” said Ben Smith, Google Fellow and VP of Engineering in a blog.post. Google further said that they find Google+ not worth investing as around 85-90% of the users were spending less than 5mintues in the platform so it was not worth spending any more money to Google+.

“Where it is clearly specified that it�s a private browsing platform where the browsing history, cookies and site data and information entered in the form will not be saved. Conversely downloads and bookmarks will still be saved and your ISP, employer/school and website you visit they will know you�ve visited a certain amount of pages in incognito mode”. On June 2nd, 2020 Google was sued for breaching privacy in private browsing mode that is incognito mode the suit filled was worth $5 billion. The consumers who filled the case as class action have alleged that in spite of using chrome in private mode it is still collecting information of the individuals. A federal judge denied the Alphabet Inc. unit�s initial request to throw out the case. “The court concludes that Google did not notify users that Google engages in the alleged data collection while the user is in private browsing mode,” U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, wrote in her ruling. Because of this Google said on 2021 it will exclude the third-party those who keep tabs on consumers and keep track their individual activity.
In August 2017, a decision by a bench of nine judges in the case of Justice K. S. Puttaswamy (Retd) Vs Union of India established that Indian citizens possess a fundamental right to privacy, which is constitutionally protected. This right is recognized as an inherent aspect of life and liberty guaranteed under Article 21.

DIGITAL PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION BILL, 2022

The Minister of Information Technology and Electronic Mr Ravi Prashad proposed a bill to the LokSabha named Personal Data Protection Bill on 2019. However, after the withdrawal of the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, the Union Government has now issued a revised version known as the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022. Further, the Data Protection Bill, 2022 is bifurcated into 6 chapters:

• Chapter 1: Preliminary
• Chapter 2: obligations of Data Fiduciary
• Chapter 3: Rights & Duties of Data Principal
• Chapter 4: Special Provisions
• Chapter 5: Compliance framework
• Chapter 6: Miscellaneous

SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF 2022 BILL

1. The first principle emphasizes that organizations should handle personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner towards the individuals involved.
2. The second principle highlights that personal data should only be utilized for the specific purposes for which it was gathered.
3. The third principle pertains to data minimization, advocating for the limited collection of personal data.
4. The fourth principle underscores the importance of data accuracy during the collection process.
5. The fifth principle addresses the duration of storage, stating that personal data cannot be stored indefinitely by default and should have a specified time limit.
6. The sixth principle emphasizes the need for reasonable safeguards to prevent unauthorized collection or processing of personal data.
7. The seventh principle states that the entity responsible for determining the purpose and methods of processing personal data should be held accountable for such activities.

CONCLUSION

With advancing technologies every individual/nation must also cope with the new technologies and must find a easy way to deal. The government must look into the matter deeply by analysing that privacy is a part of human life and it cannot be intervene by the third party. The best way to protect the dignity is to make such great laws and preventive measures that may help India from outside threat. It is a lengthy and difficult task to draft the data protection laws for India, but one must not lose hope until the final outcome: which means “From each debate, there arises knowledge of ultimate principle”.