{"id":35966,"date":"2018-11-01T12:44:05","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T07:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=35966"},"modified":"2018-11-01T12:44:05","modified_gmt":"2018-11-01T07:14:05","slug":"privacy-built-into-aadhaar-act-says-uidai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/privacy-built-into-aadhaar-act-says-uidai\/","title":{"rendered":"Privacy built into Aadhaar Act, says UIDAI\u00a0:"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-national\/privacy-built-into-aadhaar-act-says-uidai\/article19374170.ece\">Privacy built into Aadhaar Act, says UIDAI\u00a0<\/a>: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><b>Context :<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cPrivacy is non-negotiable, confidentiality is non-negotiable under the Aadhaar Act\u201d, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the nodal agency implementing the Aadhaar scheme, has said in the Supreme Court.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Introduction :<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Right to privacy is not absolute and cannot prevent the state from making laws imposing reasonable restrictions on citizens, the Supreme Court observed <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">recently.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A day after conceding that right to privacy was a fundamental right, the government on Thursday asserted before the Supreme Court that privacy and confidentiality were non-negotiable under the Aadhaar Act.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The assertion came after Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta after a nine-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India J.S.Khehar expressed concern over the data collected by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for Aadhaar.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The court was, responding to a submission by Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, that citizens not claim informational privacy when the state asks for data for a legitimate purpose such as Aadhaar.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The court\u2019s decision :<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The court said \u2018right to privacy\u2019 is in fact too \u2018amorphous\u2019 a term.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To recognize privacy as a definite right, it has to first define it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Defining privacy would be nearly impossible as an element of privacy infiltrates all the fundamental rights treasured in the Constitution.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The court identified that an attempt to define the right to privacy may cause more harm than good.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An exhaustive labeling by the court of what all constitutes privacy may limit the right itself.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Fundamental right :<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Justice S.A.Bobde wondered whether the Aadhaar Act of 2016 itself had any provisions to protect privacy. Mr. Venugopal then pointed to Section 28 of the statute dealing with \u201csecurity and confidentiality of information\u201d. It was in the State\u2019s legitimate interest to keep personal data secure as this would make Aadhaar acceptable to one and all.\u201d<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Justice Chandrachud said informational privacy was the most \u201cvexed\u201d portion of the ongoing debate as part of personal data was already in the public domain.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Article 21 :<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Article 21 of the Constitution of India states that \u201cNo person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Article 21 interprets that the term \u2018life\u2019 includes all those aspects of life which go to make a man\u2019s life meaningful, complete and worth living.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Right to Privacy: Constitution :<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Constitution of India does not specifically guarantee a \u201cright to privacy\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, through various judgments over the years, Indian courts have interpreted the other rights in the Constitution as giving rise to a (limited) right to privacy primarily through Article 21, the right to life and liberty.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What is needed to be done in context of Right to Privacy and Aadhaar? :<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In view of the increased security required specifically for territorial privacy and data privacy, there should be a provision added to the Constitution of India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A provision that deals with multiple dimensions of privacy such as personal, territorial, communication and data\/information.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Such a provision would bring clarity as to the extent of the right to privacy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is a dire need for a comprehensive privacy legislation which would ensure the protection of personal and sensitive data of people.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is also the need for an established regulatory body.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This could be structured along similar lines as that of the data protection commissioner offices, which exist in Canada, Ireland, and other developed informational economies.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Privacy built into Aadhaar Act, says UIDAI\u00a0: Context : \u201cPrivacy is non-negotiable, confidentiality is non-negotiable under the Aadhaar Act\u201d, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the nodal agency implementing the Aadhaar scheme, has said in the Supreme Court. Introduction : Right to privacy is not absolute and cannot prevent the state from making laws&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/privacy-built-into-aadhaar-act-says-uidai\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Privacy built into Aadhaar Act, says UIDAI\u00a0:<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704566682},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35966\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}