Navigating the Right to Privacy in the Digital Era: Legally Challenges and Emerging Frameworks

Explores the evolving scope of privacy in an age of surveillance, data-driven technologies, and digital governance. It examines key constitutional developments, global legal trends, and regulatory frameworks while addressing pressing challenges like data protection, cybersecurity, and state surveillance, offering insights into how law can balance innovation with fundamental rights.

The digital revolution has transformed the way we live, work, and communicate. While technology has opened unprecedented opportunities for growth and innovation, it has also raised profound concerns about the protection of individual privacy. Every online transaction, search, or social media interaction leaves behind a digital footprint—data that can be collected, analysed, and sometimes misused. This growing tension between technological advancement and the safeguarding of fundamental rights forms the central theme of this book.

The right to privacy, once understood in limited physical and informational terms, has now emerged as one of the most debated human rights issues of our time. In India, landmark judicial pronouncements like Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India have recognized privacy as intrinsic to the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution. Globally, regulations such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) have set new benchmarks for data governance, influencing legal systems worldwide.

This book seeks to navigate the evolving contours of privacy in the digital era by examining its constitutional foundations, the challenges posed by rapid technological change, and the emerging legal and regulatory frameworks designed to protect it. It highlights the delicate balance between state security interests, corporate innovation, and individual rights.

The aim is not only to analyse existing laws but also to provide a forward-looking perspective on how privacy can be better safeguarded in an increasingly interconnected world. It is hoped that this work will be of value to students, legal practitioners, policymakers, and all those concerned with the protection of fundamental freedoms in the digital age.

Mr. A Sudharshan is a distinguished legal academic and researcher with a strong foundation in Maritime Law. He earned his undergraduate degree in law from and pursued his LL.M. at the Gujarat Maritime University. Mr. R Solomon David is an engineering graduate and accomplished sales and management professional with over 5 years of extensive experience.

Mr. A. Sudharshan states that this book is an attempt to help people understand the concept of privacy and the legal challenges surrounding it. He extends his heartfelt thanks to Ms. Aiswarya S. and Mr. Madhav Ganesh for their support and encouragement in bringing this book to completion.

Co-author Mr. David adds his gratitude to the staff, Mr. A. Sudharshan, Ms. Aiswarya S., and his colleague Mr. Madhav Ganesh for their encouragement and assistance. He shares that writing this book has been the realization of a long-cherished dream while still pursuing his undergraduate studies.

Ms. Aiswarya S. acknowledges the hard work and dedication of Mr. A. Sudharshan and Mr. R. Solomon David, whose efforts made this book possible.