“[67] In the context of privacy it is only the inner sanctum of a person, such as his/her family life,

sexual preference and home environment, which is shielded from erosion by conflicting rights of the
community.

This implies that community rights and the rights of fellow members place a corresponding
obligation on a citizen, thereby shaping the abstract notion of individualism towards identifying a
concrete member of civil society. Privacy is acknowledged in the truly personal realm, but as a person
moves into communal relations and activities such as business and social interaction, the scope of
personal space shrinks accordingly.

the mere possibility that security measures will fail provides no “proper ground” for a broad-based
attack on government information-collection practices. -Bowers v Hardwick265

By its terms, this exception allows public disclosure only where release is “in the public interest” and
would not result in “an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”- Bowers v Hardwick265

The Court observed that like every other right, the right to privacy also has its limits:

“[67] In the context of privacy it is only the inner sanctum of a person, such as his/her family life,
sexual preference and home environment, which is shielded from erosion by conflicting rights of the
community.

This implies that community rights and the rights of fellow members place a corresponding
obligation on a citizen, thereby shaping the abstract notion of individualism towards identifying a
concrete member of civil society. Privacy is acknowledged in the truly personal realm, but as a person
moves into communal relations and activities such as business and social interaction, the scope of
personal space shrinks accordingly.- Bernstein v Bester and Others274

There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in
accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security,
public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for
the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.” Privacy
under The European Convention on Human Rights and the European Charter In Europe

Article 52 Scope of guaranteed rights

1. Any limitation on the exercise of the rights and freedoms recognised by this Charter must be
provided for by law and respect the essence of those rights and freedoms. Subject to the principle of
proportionality, limitations may be made only if they are necessary and genuinely meet objectives of
general interests recognised by the Union of the need to protect the rights and freedoms of others.

2. Rights recognised by this Charter which are based on the Community Treaties or the Treaty on
European Union shall be exercised under the conditions and within the limits defined by those
Treaties.

3. In so far as this Charter contains rights which correspond to rights guaranteed by the Convention
of the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the meaning and scope of those
rights shall be the same as those laid down by the said Convention. This provision shall not prevent
Union law providing more extensive protection. Article 52(3)provides for the ECHR as a minimum
standard of human rights in the EU.
“To establish the existence of an interference with the fundamental right to privacy, it does not
matter whether the information on the private lives concerned is sensitive or whether the persons
concerned have been inconvenienced in any way.” Digital Rights Ireland Ltd v Minister295

no blanket right to privacy can be read as part of the fundamental rights and where some of the
constituent facets of privacy are already covered by the enumerated guarantees in Part III, those
facets will be protected in any case;

(iii) where specific species of privacy are governed by the protection of liberty in Part III of the
Constitution, they are subject to reasonable restrictions in the public interest as recognized in several
decisions of this Court ;
PART L

(iv) privacy is a concept which does not have any specific meaning or definition and the expression is
inchoate

when privacy and its purportedly outdated values must be balanced against the cutting-edge
imperatives of national security, efficiency, and entrepreneurship, privacy comes up the loser. The
list of privacy counterweights is long and growing. The recent additions of social media, mobile
platforms, cloud computing, data mining, and predictive analytics now threaten to tip the scales
entirely, placing privacy in permanent opposition to the progress of knowledge.”