Ensure digital privacy

As the first and second waves of coronavirus were wreaking havoc in Nepal, one could see many wishing speedy recovery to the infected relatives and leaders on Facebook and Twitter every day. Some well-wishers and relatives even showed the hospital bed where the infected ones were receiving treatment. With good intention, they must have informed the broader public and showed love and sympathy to the sick ones.

But no one thought that it is the breach of privacy of the infected persons. Did the well-wishers take consent before posting ill people's photos? This is also the violation of individual privacy on digital space/internet because one's health status is strictly a personal matter. However, knowingly and unknowingly, our privacy is flagrantly jeopardized on internet/digital space. It reiterates the notion that we are public by default in the digital age.

When it comes to privacy in the digital age, some have regarded internet as a 'panopticon', a structure made in a way that is convenient to watch anyone entering into it without knowing that s/he is being watched. Obviously, once we join the internet every activity we do is tracked surreptitiously, to which many of us are almost unaware. The algorithm and artificial intelligence applied by global tech giants Google, Facebook, Amazon and other innumerable apps stalk every internet user and collect data on their activities including search, likes, food habit, and visit, etc.

In the digital age privacy is therefore at stake. In addition to social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, the more we use digital gadgets, the more our privacy inches toward vulnerability. More alarming is the collection of biometric data and plethora of Close Circuit Cameras installed at various areas. How safe are the data they collect? Are they only for safety or even for surveillance? Basically, surveillance is a huge threat to citizens' digital privacy.

On the positive side, information technology accentuated by the internet is believed to be the best platform to bridge digital divide and ensure human rights to all people in a prompt and convenient manner. But the tech companies are so mighty that their tentacles and talons – the applications/programmes as algorithms, artificial intelligence and machine learning- collect, store, use and manipulate data on people's behaviour. This is gross violation of people's privacy on internet and digital sphere.

Google was criticized hugely when it unknowingly collected personal data from wifi in the name of public viewing with Street View Car. Facebook too earned huge infamy in case of Cambridge Analytica for data harvest and sale without consumers' consent. These incidents evidently accelerated the debate globally on people's digital/internet privacy.

Yes, there is voluminous production of data at present. It is simple- the more we use smartphones and the more we browse internet, the more we're producing digital data. These days, not a library nor any academic institution but tech companies are the biggest producers and storehouse of data. As the digital space is unavoidable to us, it is equally important to protect our rights. Protection of privacy on internet must be one of the priorities in any country. Making tech companies and digital spheres accountable to people's privacy is indeed a global urgency.

With this in the background, many countries are striving to protect citizen's rights to privacy and to ensure digital security. Regulating social networking site has emerged as a fad across the globe in a bid to curb hate speech, harassment, porn, child abuse, and to strengthen national security and government secrecy. But as the broader consensus lacks on handling internet related issues, the grudges are rife. For example, when the Indian government introduced the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, dubbing it a 'progressive' move, the human rights community there showed concern over Code, saying it would jeopardize social media users' privacy.

Earlier, data protection activists and privacy defenders had also demanded better safeguard of personal data to secure digital privacy in the AADHAAR Card, world's largest biometric scheme, launched by the Indian government to unburden tremendous bureaucratic hassle and to ensure smooth delivery of public service. Nepal can learn a lot from the substantial debates around these pressing issues.

In Nepal too, 50,000 users' data were leaked when a popular food delivery service, Foodmandu App, was hacked in March 2020. Such incidents have direct bearing on individuals' privacy.

When debates on privacy are observed, issues like security, surveillance and data protection come together. States generally stress national security and sometime even go beyond limit and stalk individual privacy in the name of state's privacy. It is of course digital surveillance on people and breach of their data. 

In the increasingly datafied age, relinquishing digital sphere is not only unwise but also impossible. Negotiating digital age warrants respect, protection, and promotion of human rights including right to privacy on internet. Unless privacy is protected, one cannot exercise other rights in a comfortable manner. It does not mean right to privacy is absolute, but it is fundamental to individual wellbeing and freedom. Privacy is often regarded as the gateway to other freedoms and individual development.

In Nepal too, right to privacy is enshrined as fundamental right in the constitution. So, any other laws and policies surrounding privacy, data, statistics, cyber security, e-commerce communications/media and digital sphere need to be studied well to identify bottlenecks and check their consistency with constitutional provisions and commitment to international human rights mechanisms.

The state as well as civil society including media, policy and rights advocates should be aware about how policies and laws are evolving on it. For example, the provisions in the IT Bill, Telecommunications Bill, Individual Privacy Act, Criminal Code, Media Policy, E-Commerce Bill, National Cyber Security Policy (draft), and Statistics etc. should be observed well to identify bottlenecks on digital privacy. All must work together for reform.  

It is worth noting that the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on right to privacy in the digital age in December 2018. It calls upon all UN Member States and business enterprises to respect and protect right to privacy in digital space by being sensitive in terms of collection, use, sharing, process and retention of individual's data. Similarly, unforgettable are Section 12 of UDHR and Article 17 of ICCPR when any country frames law and policy on privacy.

Published on 22 June 2021