Right To Privacy Is Not Absolute, Comes With Some Riders In India

Despite being a strong votary of the Right to Privacy, I strongly feel that bad elements on social media need to be taken by their horns. Such people are not only misusing the social platforms but also poisoning the entire social fabric- the bonds that help to strengthen the culturally rich and socially cohesive community.

Spreading communal hatred, invoking invectives, cyber-bullying, stalking, using social media for blackmailing etc. are now the order of the day.

Given the situation, I feel Modi govt new rules for WhatsApp are justified as long as it is not misused to browbeat the critics and opponents. The new rules notified as notified on May 26, 2021 require WhatsApp to break end-to-end encryption on their messaging service.

Undoubtedly, traceability is incompatible with end-to-end encryption techniques and undermines the use of encryption technology but under Indian conditions where breaking law chaotically is the way of life and people over-obsessed with sex, the absolute right to privacy appears too dangerous and seen doing more harm to the society. WhatsApp with 340 million users in India is the biggest market. It was downloaded 13 million times in April 2021. WhatsApp is available in more than 180 countries in 60 different languages.

As such allowing free bull run for a long time is very harmful and has to be curtailed. Whatsapp is not a share market where corrections take place instantaneously. Its a proift driven social media platform and has the more probability of being misused. Sexual predators are more active on WhatsApp and cyberbullying is very common.

Moreover, the loss of privacy comes with the use of social networking sites. It generates the loss of individual privacy.

The arguments such as new rules infringe upon the fundamental right to privacy and free speech of hundreds of millions of citizens using WhatsApp are not very convincing. Social media like WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Telegram and Instagram are seen more as breaching the privacy of the citizens. With advanced technology, even morphed videos are being used for blackmailing. Such a gross misuse of social media platforms needs to be checked.

Just recently, a fake message was circulated on WhatsApp, proclaiming that a new rule allows WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram to use your images, messages, files, and other information for their personal gain. All these messages were found fake.

WhatsApp is still the end-to-end encrypted platform and only the sender and the receiver can access the message. All your chats, photos, videos, voice messages, documents, status updates and calls can’t be accessed by WhatsApp, Facebook, or the government. Only you or the person you are communicating with can check chats.

End-to-end encryption means that your messages are secured with a lock, and only the recipient and you have the special key needed to unlock and read them. You can verify if the messages and calls are end-to-end encrypted by visiting the profile of an individual.

This facility is more often misused with morphed video by sex predators and anti-social elements and by enemies for spreading hatred and for blackmailing innocent people with morphed video. It can lead to animosity, exploitation, and social disharmony. So rules are, surely, needed to check such bad elements,

(Chander Sharma)