The Right to Privacy: An Overview to the New Era of Privacy Breaches Emerging from the Advent of Social Media Platforms

It wasn’t until the year 2017 that the Judiciary in India recognised the Right to Privacy as an inherent Fundamental Right under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. The advent of social media and its growing influence on people, businesses and economies led to the emergence of numerous opportunities and violations of the right to privacy of the people. Recent studies reveal that there exists a void between the laws in place to curb these privacy breaches and the mechanism in order to implement these laws. According to a report from the National Crime Records Bureau, between 2012 and 2014, that is in just a span of two years, the number of cyber privacy related crimes have risen by 104% and this number is undoubtedly much higher in today’s world as the access to internet and social media is the highest and the easiest it has even been. This paper aims to bring about an understanding about the various threats to an individual’s right to privacy that has been conceived owing to the advancement of social media, and the laws in place to curb and regulate such illicit activities.