Technology diluting privacy: Supreme Court
By IANSThursday, February 24, 2011
NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court Thursday said that with the march of technology, privacy is “virtually disappearing”.
“Given the technological advancement, privacy is virtually disappearing,” said a bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly.
The court’s observation came in the wake of senior counsel Harish Salve’s submission that if the government had the right to snoop on the citizen’s privacy (through phonetaps)in the national interest, then it also had a corresponding responsibility of guarding these intercepts from public gaze.
Salve was arguing for Tata Group chairperson Ratan Tata seeking a thorough probe into the leaking of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia’s taped conversations related to 2G spectrum allocation. Tata figured in some of the conversations.
Radia’s telephones were put under surveillance after the home ministry received a letter alleging that in a short period of few years, she had amassed huge wealth and that she had foreign connections.
