What do you think?
Rate this book
Privacy 3.0: Unlocking Our Data-Driven Future
Our personal space is dear to us all. We live our lives in full public view on social media - posting photos of the food we just ate or even expressing intimate feelings for our loved ones - but there are still things we would rather not share with the world. Indeed, it is privacy that sets man apart from the animals who must stick together in the wild for their own safety. But mankind was not born private. Our primitive ancestors too lived in large groups, every member of which knew all there was to know about the others. Privacy evolved over time as man developed technologies to wall himself off, even as he remained part of the society at large. But just as some technologies enhanced privacy, others - such as the printing press or the portable camera - chipped away at it. Every time this happened, man opposed the technology at first but made his peace with it eventually to benefit from the obvious good it could do. We are at a similar crossroads today with data technologies. Aadhaar is one example of the many ways in which we have begun to use data in everything we do. While it has made it far easier to avail of services from the government and private enterprises than ever before, there are those who rightly worry about people's private data being put to ill use - and, worse, without consent. But this anxiety is no different from that which we felt during the teething troubles of every previous technology we adopted. What we really need is a new framework that unlocks the full potential of a data-driven future while still safeguarding what we hold most dear - our privacy. In this pioneering work, technology lawyer Rahul Matthan traces the changing notions of privacy from the earliest times to its evolution through landmark cases in the UK, US and India. In the process, he re-imagines the way we should be thinking about privacy today if we are to take full advantage of modern data technologies, cautioning against getting so obsessed with their potential harms that we design our laws to prevent us from benefiting from them at all.
- GenresNonfictionLaw
249 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 5, 2018
18 people are currently reading
203 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 6, 2018
Worth a read
Well written book that explores the evolution of privacy laws over the years. Also established clearly that the current privacy concerns related to data collection, assimilation and use are no different from the concerns raised by the introduction of new technologies like the printing press and the camera in the past. I feel some more time or pages could have been spent on explaining the proposed privacy law. After all the book is called Privacy 3.0!
Well written book that explores the evolution of privacy laws over the years. Also established clearly that the current privacy concerns related to data collection, assimilation and use are no different from the concerns raised by the introduction of new technologies like the printing press and the camera in the past. I feel some more time or pages could have been spent on explaining the proposed privacy law. After all the book is called Privacy 3.0!
April 1, 2020
Absolutely loved the history & jurisprudence of privacy laws!
April 26, 2019
This is a book that everyone ought to read because privacy affects us all, and as Rahul explains, in ways that we do not even know. If one didn’t know the author, one could never have guessed that he was a lawyer - a compliment to his writing skills and clarity of thought. Those who know him would expect this though. After all, even as a young man reading law, he was articulate, well read, an excellent debater, a music aficionado, a tenor and a guitarist - the envy of many men and secret crush of many young ladies. Over the last 25 years he has honed all those skills and talents and the book is an excellent showcasing of them all.
The book begins by attempting to explore the origins of privacy and that’s perhaps its weakest part. It seems like his editor insisted that the book needed a runway and the inspiration was Yuval Noah Hariri. In an tempt to form a generalisation that is unnecessary for the book and its ideas, he strays into biology, animal behaviour, history and anthropology- all subjects that are perhaps no part of his strongest suit. His last chapter could still have looked as good as it does without any help from the first. But that is really the only criticism of what is otherwise an excellent book. He falls for one of the oldest tricks the mind plays on you - absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, when he concludes that privacy is a modern capitalist construct born of technology and unique to mankind and is now a privilege of the rich. He even repeats this in his Lex Machina column in The Mint. It reminded me of the line from a famous Leonard Cohen song - the rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor. Finally, even the poor mans home is no longer his castle any more!
His deep understanding of the law of privacy and the impact of technology is perhaps the most outstanding aspect of the book. His predictions have come true and we would all do well to heed his advice on how to create a privacy model for India, free from all the historical solutions from the past that seem to be hurdles for other countries to overcome, millstones that don’t allow them to leapfrog to the new accountability model that he suggests to balance privacy and innovation. The current regulatory framework ignores the daisy chain of apps and databases which results in no responsibility for privacy violations or consequences for decisions made using that data (whether primary, secondary or derived).
Despite all his efforts to help conceive a privacy law based on an excellent study of the subject and the laws of various countries, that the government has still not managed to have a definitive position on it is an indictment of our democracy - where people are ill informed and have no recourse to any constitutional remedies for violence of the government in the form of Aadhaar - what it was stated to be, the submissions made to the SC, the naïveté of the SC in not confirming those government submissions as guardrails so that government is bound to respect those boundaries.
Will the common man who is most affected by the recent assault on privacy be willing to stand up for himself? Will the government be willing to recognise the value of the model that Rahul recommends or will it continue to use state machinery to terrorise its people? These are questions that the book throws up for its readers.
The book begins by attempting to explore the origins of privacy and that’s perhaps its weakest part. It seems like his editor insisted that the book needed a runway and the inspiration was Yuval Noah Hariri. In an tempt to form a generalisation that is unnecessary for the book and its ideas, he strays into biology, animal behaviour, history and anthropology- all subjects that are perhaps no part of his strongest suit. His last chapter could still have looked as good as it does without any help from the first. But that is really the only criticism of what is otherwise an excellent book. He falls for one of the oldest tricks the mind plays on you - absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, when he concludes that privacy is a modern capitalist construct born of technology and unique to mankind and is now a privilege of the rich. He even repeats this in his Lex Machina column in The Mint. It reminded me of the line from a famous Leonard Cohen song - the rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor. Finally, even the poor mans home is no longer his castle any more!
His deep understanding of the law of privacy and the impact of technology is perhaps the most outstanding aspect of the book. His predictions have come true and we would all do well to heed his advice on how to create a privacy model for India, free from all the historical solutions from the past that seem to be hurdles for other countries to overcome, millstones that don’t allow them to leapfrog to the new accountability model that he suggests to balance privacy and innovation. The current regulatory framework ignores the daisy chain of apps and databases which results in no responsibility for privacy violations or consequences for decisions made using that data (whether primary, secondary or derived).
Despite all his efforts to help conceive a privacy law based on an excellent study of the subject and the laws of various countries, that the government has still not managed to have a definitive position on it is an indictment of our democracy - where people are ill informed and have no recourse to any constitutional remedies for violence of the government in the form of Aadhaar - what it was stated to be, the submissions made to the SC, the naïveté of the SC in not confirming those government submissions as guardrails so that government is bound to respect those boundaries.
Will the common man who is most affected by the recent assault on privacy be willing to stand up for himself? Will the government be willing to recognise the value of the model that Rahul recommends or will it continue to use state machinery to terrorise its people? These are questions that the book throws up for its readers.
October 6, 2020
An excellent book that charts the development of privacy as a notion (Privacy 1.0), its recognition as a right (Privacy 2.0) and finally an appeal to rethink privacy laws to uphold its relevance in today's data driven world (Privacy 3.0).
Starting with how the concept of privacy originated in early human society, Matthan first takes the reader through a history of privacy related legislation in the UK and US - namely copyright and confidence breach, which led to the need to recognize privacy as a right in these countries.
The book then shifts focus to India. Matthan investigates the debates around including privacy as a fundamental right in the Indian Constitution, presents three legal cases that lay the foundation of how privacy is thought of in India and then outlines his experience when asked to assist with drafting a privacy law for India after he raised concerns about UPA undertaking the UID project without the country having a privacy legislation framework.
The book then details the problems with data controllers merely soliciting consent and ends an appeal to rethink the concept of privacy beyond just seeking consent.
Very insightful book on the whole and I would recommend to anyone who takes privacy for granted.
Starting with how the concept of privacy originated in early human society, Matthan first takes the reader through a history of privacy related legislation in the UK and US - namely copyright and confidence breach, which led to the need to recognize privacy as a right in these countries.
The book then shifts focus to India. Matthan investigates the debates around including privacy as a fundamental right in the Indian Constitution, presents three legal cases that lay the foundation of how privacy is thought of in India and then outlines his experience when asked to assist with drafting a privacy law for India after he raised concerns about UPA undertaking the UID project without the country having a privacy legislation framework.
The book then details the problems with data controllers merely soliciting consent and ends an appeal to rethink the concept of privacy beyond just seeking consent.
Very insightful book on the whole and I would recommend to anyone who takes privacy for granted.
June 24, 2019
Fascinating read about the history of privacy globally and it’s development in the Indian context. The first section of the book is particularly fetching (hopefully, even for non lawyers) on account of its ability to relate a dull legal concept to modern day life. The author also brings out the limitations of applying the common framework of consent in the Indian context and seeks to develop an alternative (if not completely new) approach to data privacy in the Indian context. Unfortunately, the books runs out of pages before privacy 3.0 is drawn out in any substantive detail. The author could have been even more convincing if he had dwelt not only into how consent as currently deployed is inadequate but also considered in some detail how modifying the existing consent framework (e.g. to make it more meaningful or appropriate to the Indian context) wouldn’t necessarily work.
March 17, 2019
This book takes us through the evolution of privacy in human history - around the world and in India. It presents the shifts and inflections that technology and their social usage have produced in the way we think of self and its inviolability. The book also shows how privacy jurisprudence has followed overreaching state authority and technological advancement, especially in the Indian context. While examining the theme of 'consent', the book argues its unsuitability in the modern networked digitized world. As limited as it is in its analysis of 'accountability' as an alternative source of privacy protection, it still points out many problems with the current legal frameworks that need to be addressed.
August 29, 2020
Being an engineer turned lawyer I found this book to be fascinating and reading it has been enjoyable. It has provided me the basic understanding of data privacy especially in the Indian context as well as the jurisprudencial aspect of right to privacy. The book is devoid of unnecessary legal jargon and therefore is a lucid read even for non-lawyers.
Its important to understand data privacy because everyday we are knowingly or unknowingly generating a ton (MBs if not GBs) of data and it is being used by hundreds of data processors to derive more information and as well as to figure out our personal likes, dislikes, habit, etc.
Its important to understand data privacy because everyday we are knowingly or unknowingly generating a ton (MBs if not GBs) of data and it is being used by hundreds of data processors to derive more information and as well as to figure out our personal likes, dislikes, habit, etc.
February 16, 2019
Privacy 3.0 is a book which takes you from jungle to world where human lives. Initially I felt it was like those books, who beats around the bush, however, author came to the moot issue with solid examples. This book consist of court order, committee reports, recent current affair regarding privacy, aadhar, various schemes, kyc norms. Its a very informative book.
September 25, 2024
The book is concept of privacy, how it emerged, how it changed and still changing along with the new privacy challenges emerging with the emerging technologies. Writer has also shared the initial journey of Data Protection and Privacy regulations in India.
Book is beautifully written in an easy to understand language.
Book is beautifully written in an easy to understand language.
August 30, 2018
Presenting a panoramic view of the evolution of privacy in human history, this work is a useful guide to contextualise the current debate over the issue and think of a way forward.
June 25, 2021
Highlights:
- A fair take on the history of the development of privacy in India.
- Implications of Aadhaar
- A way forward in thinking about privacy.
- A fair take on the history of the development of privacy in India.
- Implications of Aadhaar
- A way forward in thinking about privacy.
March 13, 2024
Good overview of the past, but falls short of any meaningful suggestions for the future.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews