Thiruvananthapuram: Former Chief Justice of Orissa High Court, S Muralidhar, said the younger generation should make an effort to avoid using mobile phones and other digital devices for at least one hour a day in order to safeguard privacy.Inaugurating a seminar on Law, Technology, and Human Rights, organized by state human rights commission at the Science and Technology Museum, Muralidhar said that this one-hour break should gradually be increased. Young people, he said, must take the initiative to form offline clubs and lead efforts to protect privacy themselves.The state will not help them in this matter, he added, because both govts and multinational corporations are interested in keeping people dependent on digital devices. He suggested using that device-free hour to read newspapers.He noted that personal privacy has now been almost completely eroded. In many cases, the internet knows more about a person’s health issues than the person does. Health data is being leaked through phone numbers shared for lab tests and through medical reports that people are asked to send on WhatsApp, he said. He warned against casually forwarding information received on WhatsApp and other platforms, especially personal details, which should never be shared.He also said people should not imagine that life revolves entirely around mobile applications. A mobile device, he said, is a sharp tool, much like a kitchen knife.Although the country has a Digital Personal Data Protection Act, information shared online continues to remain unsafe.He remarked that many people today have forgotten even how to hold a pen, while endlessly browsing on their phones instead.Human beings are no longer speaking to one another, but to machines. He said the idea of de-addiction may soon take on a new meaning, and just as people now seek treatment for alcoholism, in the future they may need treatment for mobile phone addiction as well.What is written on paper can be erased, he said, but what is searched on the internet cannot be wiped away. “When a doctor types a patient’s medical details into a computer, the whole world effectively comes to know about the illness. A person might hide diabetes from a spouse, but not from the internet. Anyone using a smartphone no longer has real personal freedom. This is an age in which losing a password can feel like losing one’s life,” he said.He also said that people’s mental well-being is affected when the number of likes on Facebook drops.According to him, IT companies based in United States now shape and control people’s lives, meaning that someone living in India is effectively under American digital influence.He said top Indian youth talent has already been bought up by internet companies operating from the US. If he travels from Delhi to Kerala, he said, his phone immediately begins showing only Kerala-related advertisements. If he relies on online food delivery platforms, they end up deciding his tastes. “At the same time, senior citizens are unable to keep pace with the speed of the internet-driven world,” he said.He cautioned people to be careful when giving out their phone numbers wherever they go, since these numbers are linked to Aadhaar.
