"AI (artificial intelligence) has started writing judgments and books now,” said Justice V. Ramasubramanian, National Human Rights Commission chairperson and former judge of the Supreme Court, in his humorous speech at the launch of Nina Nariman’s book, Informational Privacy: Constitutional and Common Law Remedies, on April 2, 2025, as reported Bar and Bench on the following day. "Fortunately, this book is not written by AI but by NI — Native Intelligence,” he quipped.
Published by EBC (Eastern Book Company), the book was released in Delhi by Ramasubramanian, who was chief guest, along with senior advocate Madhavi Gorodia Divan, guest of honor. The author’s parents, retired Justice Rohinton and Dr Sanaya Nariman were present on the occasion.
Reflecting on how deeply technology has intruded into our private lives, Ramasubramanian recounted a personal experience after Saturn’s astrological transition, stating, "When I opened my eyes, I saw hundreds of messages on what pariharas (corrective measures to counter karma) to do. I realized Google knows much more about us than our spouses do. It is in this context that informational privacy is very important.”
Concerned about the hidden costs of digital services, he also said, "When you log in to social media, you are both a consumer and a product. The first lesson all of us should learn is that when somebody offers something free of cost, he is actually offering you as a service to someone else,” reported Bar and Bench. He also spoke about global regulatory efforts to rein in digital technology and the massive fines imposed by the European Union on data companies for privacy violations.
The chief guest recalled a conversation with Rohinton, who jokingly cautioned him, "Ram, don’t go too humorous. You may not get bail!”
From l: Dr Sanaya, Nina (also inset) and Justice Rohinton Nariman (retd),
Justice V. Ramasubramanian, Madhavi Gorodia Divan and dignitaries on the dais
Warning about the threats to informational privacy in the digital age, Divan remarked that while freedom of speech is often discussed, "What good is freedom of speech without freedom of thought? In the age of data mining, what is being robbed from us is freedom of thought.”
Art is increasingly being commodified and people are willing to surrender personal data for trivial digital experiences, she noted, about the trend of using AI to transform photographs into animated images. "The surrender of personal data… shows how an educated generation of netizens (has) easily… been lulled or dulled into following the herd,” she said.
"Human attention has become a scarce commodity, so scarce that it is being monetized. Our own data is being used to determine what we like and don’t like. While we imagine we are consumers of information, we are actually the products being offered to advertisers. This can be used for anything from product choices to electoral choices,” she said, stressing the need for stronger privacy protection. "Given how pressing the issue is, it’s actually an irony how long it took us to declare privacy as a fundamental right.”
Rohinton voiced the need for a larger judicial bench to revisit the scope of Article 226 (of the Constitution) doctrine, arguing that privacy protection should extend beyond fundamental rights and be enforceable against private entities as well.
Concluding the event, author Nina emphasized the need to use Article 226 as a tool to address breaches of informational privacy.