Columnists

Apar Gupta

The writer is an advocate practising in Delhi.

Why draft data accessibility policy is dangerous

Sat, Mar 05, 2022

Apar Gupta writes: It will allow government to enrich and sell data to private sector, will risk prioritising commercial interests over privacy

National security, at the cost of citizens’ privacy

Mon, Dec 20, 2021

🔴 Apar Gupta, Vrinda Bhandari writes: The JPC report and the Data Protection Bill, 2021 protect the government instead of the personal data of Indian citizens

How do we read the Supreme Court’s Pegasus order

Fri, Oct 29, 2021

Apar Gupta writes: The Supreme Court's move for independent probe is an important step towards fixing accountability.

The IT Rules fail the test of constitutionality

Fri, Oct 01, 2021

Apar Gupta writes: There is judicial consensus that they lack statutory backing and harm freedom of speech and expression.

Delhi government shouldn’t congratulate itself on CCTV coverage

Sun, Sep 05, 2021

Apar Gupta and Anushka Jain write: Rather than deterring crime, surveillance project compromises women’s safety and liberties of all citizens, is fiscally imprudent.

Task for new IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

Wed, Jul 14, 2021

Apar Gupta, Rohin Garg write: Ashwini Vaishnaw must implement broader digital governance framework. Process of updating IT Act must be made public.

India’s technocratic approach to vaccination is excluding the digitally-deprived

Sat, May 15, 2021

In the absence of the internet and without knowledge of how CoWin functions, the majority of India’s rural population is being left out of Covid inoculation effort

Centre’s IT Rules bring answerability in digital ecosystem. But they also increase political control

Fri, Feb 26, 2021

Apar Gupta writes: The substance of many of the requirements were never put to public consultation or deliberation by experts. This is particularly the case for the regulations for online news portals and video streaming platforms.

In the Twitter-govt faceoff, an undemocratic provision of law is being applied to its maximum threshold

Fri, Feb 12, 2021

It leaves a sense of confusion and wonder about why our own government formed under the Constitution may be failing to fulfil its obligations when strangers who trade in our data for profit are seemingly more eager.

When privacy was made supreme

Sat, Aug 24, 2019

Two years after historic SC judgment, its promise has not been fully realised.

Someone’s Always Watching

Sat, Jun 01, 2019

A linguistic framework to articulate the alarm that comes from a rapidly changing ecology of a digitised society.

On the ground, SC ruling on Section 66A is frequently violated

Mon, Feb 25, 2019

In refusing to keep the application alive even when a majority of states/UTs had not yet furnished replies, the Court has again made the afterlife of 66-A a non-transparent affair.

Message from a verdict

Fri, Sep 28, 2018

Amending of Aadhaar Act should not be a restoration of state’s power.

The Caravan Rolls On

Sat, May 12, 2018

The outlines of a progressive movement for greater government accountability emerge from the narration of Aruna Roy and the MKSS Collectives in The RTI Story: Power to the People.

Dubious concern

Fri, May 04, 2018

Consensus among parties against fake news is born from an instinct to censor dissent, not protect democratic values

Partly free

Mon, Dec 11, 2017

That’s the rating of India by a report on internet freedom. It’s troubling

Dialling The Wrong Number

Mon, Sep 25, 2017

The DOT circulars seeking Aadhaar-Mobile linking have no legal force

Privacy, dignity, sexual autonomy

Fri, Aug 25, 2017

The right to privacy was a constitutionally accepted and applied right recognised by an interpretative device of the Supreme Court since 1975. Over the decades, more than 30 decisions of the apex court applied privacy as a bundle of rights that permitted liberty of thought and action.