The book is an easy read about privacy without much jargons on the topic . It traces evolution of privacy starting from the hunter gatherer stage of mankind to the present times during which some technology has on the one hand enabled privacy while some have cast a dark shadow on it .
It discusses interesting cases about evolution of privacy law in both uk and us . in uk privacy law evolved as an adjunct to breach of confidence and only with curly vs pope case and the royal family case did it clearly come out as a right in its own stead .
In us it was the Harvard law article by Warren and Brandeis that set the right to privacy on a firm footing as the right to be left alone . Ultimately fair information practices and principles fipps was enacted .
The book also traces the evolution of privacy law in India where the right to privacy is conspicuous by its absence in the Indian constitution inspite of discussion in the constituent assembly. The first time it came for discussion in supreme court was in the mp Sharma case followed by kharak Singh . Both the cases took the road of originalist constitutional interpretation to not read the right as a fundamental right.
However in madhya pradesh vs govind inspite of a smaller bench a right to privacy was upheld and domiciliary visits of police were declared ultra vires .
The biggest development on privacy law in India was the puttaswamy judgement which came about because of a challenge to the aadhar regime . The nine judge bench unequivocally established a right to privacy in India , upheld the naz foundation case ruling and overruled the eight judge mp Sharma ruling. The author also summarises the judgement of all the nine authors.
Finally the author brings up the issue of consent which is in vogue today before data collection by controllers . Data subjects are subjected to myriad types of consent forms today which are not only bulky but also difficult to comprehend for an average data subject. One time consent niether satisfies collector who may realise its myriad uses and purposes after collecting because of the changing nature of technology, not does it satisfy the subject who has no avenue for cross verification of data post consent .
The author instead argues for an accountability paradigm where regulatory audit will determine the Safety and security of systems and communicate it to the data controller for rectification failing which punitive action will be warranted. The author's idea of a security rating of apps is a worthwhile idea , a lacuna which we all are too aware of because of multiplicity of apps on a particular topic .
