Right to Privacy?

Last week when the Supreme Court of India passed verdict on right to privacy, it was really a great day. Everybody was rejoicing since it is a very basic right for an individual. And with a verdict of a right to privacy India joined the club of a very few western countries where they have the right. It was indeed a proud moment for us as Indians.

Right to privacy is a fundamental right now. It allows us to keep our personal information secret. We are not bound to share the information which we don't want to share, e.g. I can refuse to tell my birthplace, or my caste or religion if I think it will be misused or if I am not comfortable sharing with.

But then I am confused about what information I really can hide? From whom? If the government asks me my details for driving license or pan no. then is it a breach of the fundamental right or a bank asks me for my financial details and my marital status? Or the school, colleges ask about my personal details. It is obviously mandatory to give our birthplace, address gender details to the school otherwise it would be chaos. Or even when the government is conducting a national survey for census or a survey to find out the socio-economic and educational situation of the people then is it a breach? And if we refuse to give the correct information then how will the government decide the welfare policies for the people? And other policies for the State.

Now we live in a digital world, we are all connected to the world with many electronic devices like smartphones, laptops, personal computers, tab etc. and we are sharing our views on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp,  Instagram, LinkedIn, many more, so whenever you open your Facebook you could see some ads or posts which are not subscribed by you, or not in your friend list but still they appear on your wall. These ads

are those which you might be interested in and you might take a look at it. Like shopping websites for women that too clothing or fashion etc. for boys or men gadgets vehicles or even when I open Amazon app I will get many products on my home screen, which are might be of my interests. I get many junk emails in my mailbox, or I get SMS to form many companies. Even on twitter, I would invariably receive the posts of my interests, like political or social posts. So all of them are chasing my activities on the net and trying to tempt the consumer inside me or trying to show me the ads which I would like to read. The list goes on. That means all the time I am connected to the internet through any of the devices, I am accessible to somebody and somebody is spying whatever I am doing, wherever I am going, whatever I am buying, eating, travelling etc. Life is like an open book these days.

So even though we want to hide our personal information, are we able to do so? Is the question now.  So when we were rejoicing for the verdict, why were we?