Privacy in a ‘fishbowl society’, Pg7

Key Highlights:

• India faces challenges in protecting privacy despite having laws like the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
• Cybercrimes, including Non-Consensual Intimate Image Abuse (NCII), are rising, but specific data is lacking.
• The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued SOPs on November 11, 2025, to curb NCII circulation, mandating content takedown within 24 hours.
• The current SOP lacks a gender-neutral framework and clear accountability for deepfake generation and dissemination.

Detailed Insights:

• The focus on privacy should extend beyond just the loss of privacy to include anxiety, fear, stigma, loss of autonomy, and bodily integrity.
• Lack of awareness, digital illiteracy, social stigma, and fear prevent victims from reporting NCII, sometimes leading to self-harm.
• The response to an RTI application seeking data on cyberbullying and cybervoyeurism revealed that this data falls under the State List.
• The current SOP does not address the disproportionate targeting of transgender persons, particularly transwomen, through deepfake harassment.
• A dedicated law on NCII is needed to emphasize duties on platforms, AI developers, and intermediaries, going beyond traditional legal focuses.
• Deficient cyber-investigative capacity, inadequate police sensitization, and victim-blaming dilute the impact of existing laws.
• Meaningful reforms require gender-neutral laws, police training, capacity building, platform accountability, AI-specific safeguards, and victim-centric legal mechanisms.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Deepfake: AI-generated synthetic media that can create realistic but fake images and videos.
• Cybervoyeurism: Using electronic devices to secretly capture or transmit images of another person.
• Actus Reus: The physical element of a crime.
• Mens Rea: The mental element of a crime, referring to the intention or knowledge of wrongdoing.