AWARENESS ON DATA PROTECTION - BY K.LEELA VYSHNAVI

INTRODUCTION

This is the era where everything is going on digitally, where everyone’s personal information is available on various online platforms. The personal information may be private, professionals or public life. It’s the information relating to ones individual. The information we provide on online platform will be transferred globally which increases the burden on the government to protect the information of every individual. Therefore, here comes the concept of the DATA PROTECTION. Personal data is the data which pertains to characteristics, traits or attributes of identity, which can be used to identify an individual. Data Protection deals with protecting ones information by laying down certain rules, regulations, and procedures. Data protection means individual information shouldn’t be share to others it must be kept secured and protected.

WHERE DOES DATA BREACHES?

Data breach means where the information of an individual is stolen, accessed without the authorization (without the persons knowledge). Data breaches occurs mostly while doing the online-transactions (which includes shopping via online, entering the details of ATM cards, Credit cards e.t.c) unauthorized access of government websites, unauthorized access of hospitals information, getting others business information unknowingly. These are the often places where the data breaches. It’s everyone’s right that the data of an individual should be protected and there are certain bills, acts in order to protect the rights of an individual against the data breach and their privacy of data.

JUDICIAL ACTIVISM

UNDER CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS

The Supreme Court of India through its various Judgments has made Right to Privacy as a fundamental right under article 21 of the Constitution of India. Again the Supreme Court of India has came for the help of common citizen by declaring right to privacy as a fundamental right under article 21 which states that “no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedures established by law.” Judicial intervention has greatly influenced Right to Privacy within the realm of Fundamental Rights. Article 141 of the Constitution states that “the law declared by the Supreme Court shall be binding on all courts within the territory of India.” Therefore, the decisions of The Supreme Court of India become the Law of the Land.

CASE: KHARAK SINGH VS STATE OF U.P. 1963 AIR 1295, 1964 SCR (1) 332

It also noted that the bundle of fundamental rights were self-contained and mutually exclusive. Even though the right to privacy was not expressly recognized as a fundamental right, it was an essential ingredient of personal liberty under Article 21. India has come up with its own legislation for safeguarding and protecting the privacy of individuals which is recognized as a Fundamental Right under Article-21 by the Supreme Court in PUTTASWAMY VS UNION OF INDIA (2017) 10 SCC 1.

THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACT, 2000

In the IT Act, 2000 there are some provisions that are related to the data protection. Although, there is no separate chapter or comprehensive sections on the aspect of privacy.

Under section 43 of the IT Act, an individual can claim compensation up to 10 million in the following cases

1. Unauthorised access to a computer, computer system, computer network, data, computer databases.

2. Unauthorised downloading, coping or extraction of any data, computer database or information.

Introduction of computer contaminant

a. Damages or causes to be damaged any computer, computer system or computer network, data, computer data base or any other programs residing in such computer, computer system or computer network.

b. Damages or causes to be damaged any computer, computer system or computer network, data, computer data base or any other programs residing in such computer, computer system or computer network; or

c. disrupts or causes disruption of any computer, computer system or computer  network;

d. denies or causes the denial of access to any person authorized to access  any computer, computer system or computer network by any means;

e. provides any assistance to any person to facilitate access to a computer,  computer system or computer network in contravention of the provisions of this  Act, rules or regulations made there under,

f. charges the services availed of by a person to the account of another  person by tampering with or manipulating any computer, computer system, or   computer network,

g. destroys, deletes or alters any information residing in a computer resource or diminishes its value or utility or affects it injuriously by any means

h. Steals, conceals, destroys or alters or causes any person to steal, conceal, destroy or alter any computer source code used for a computer resource with an intention to cause damage, (Inserted vide ITAA 2008)

Now by the Amendment of 2008, even the criminal punishment is provided for the violation of any provision of section 43 that is 3years punishment.

SECTION-72 is the only section which deals with the aspect of privacy, and provides the punishment of 2years or with fine of Rupees one lakh or both, but main lacuna is that it is only confined to the persons on whom power is conferred under this act.

DATA PROTECTION BILL: The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 was introduced for protection of personal data of individuals, and establishes a Data Protection Authority for the same. The bill works to check the instances of cyber attacks and the spread of fake news. The Bill sets up a Data Protection Authority which may:

1.  Take steps to protect interests of individuals.

2.  Prevent misuse of personal data.

3. Ensure compliance with the bill.

RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN

The Right to be Forgotten is a Right of an individual to have his /her private information removed from public domains like Internet search engines. In other words it means, the data subject shall have the right to obtain from the controller the exclusion of personal data regarding him or her without undue delay and the controller shall have the obligation to erase personal data without undue delay”. There is no right to be forgotten under the Indian laws at the moment. However, the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the Puttaswamy case held that right to be forgotten falls within the ambit of with the right to privacy and is an integral part of Article 21 of the Constitution. The Bill proposes the legislative inclusion of the right to be forgotten. Individuals would then be able to limit, delete, delink, or correct any information about him which is misleading, embarrassing, and irrelevant.

CONCLUSION

We come across many situations where we see some person’s data is theft or losing for amount in cards, etc. In order to overcome these problems one should have knowledge on data protection. Everybody won’t be aware of the data protection in the present era. As everything goes on digitally and doing more transactions online there is lot of confusing in the minds of individuals where some individuals sometimes leave the data and many take advantage of that data leftover. Every individual shall realize that there are laws relating to data protection and everyone shall utilize these laws in an effective manner. It’s our fundamental right to get the data protected and utilization and having knowledge on these laws yields to better life.