The Internet has become significant part of the life of the general public,
and most part of the life has gone in an online environment. People work, and
study through the medium of internet. Everything is connected through internet.
People use the cyberspace for various endeavors and for that they various
websites, these sites require some sensitive information this information
requires consent.
There are many factors go into when considering online platforms, but consent is
one of the major one. The meaning of consent is permission being granted for
something. Consent is required by website host from the persons who are
accessing them.
Online Data Protection norms have become very essential for the normal life and
consent plays big part in that[1]. Whenever a person uses any online services or
social websites, they must provide their personal details which can be dangerous
used against the person itself.
Online consent has become very easy to obtain by website hosts or data
controllers (website owners who obtain information from people accessing their
websites for specifics services). The people who access these websites are
called data subjects and the data subjects are the focus of the data
controllers. The concept of consent is very controversial in nature, it is very
difficult for the court to pinpoint the liability in these cases.
Because environment is so diverse and there is no territorial boundaries in this
format so the jurisdiction also becomes quite a challenge to court. Online
consent is being explored as part of data protection law but many countries a at
a loss since that they are not able establish any concrete and stable provision
which cover this problem the state who has the most stable and most efficient
statue is European Union and Its statue of European Union General Data
Protection Rules (EUGDPR).
Most of the states that are trying to establish a law are taking EUGDPR as a
base document for this legislation. EUGDPR also fails to establish a effective
Consent legislation. The online consent given in the EUGDPR developed so much
because of the experimental study. The Online consent is still having a lot of
flaws as a protection measure.
The Laws in UK, US and India regarding online consent is not developed as it is
in European Union. The UK has a Data Protection Law in place, but it is not as
developed as European Union. The use of internet also has evolved in these
countries and major part is teenagers. An act came to USA in 1998 Children's
Online Privacy Protection Act which protects the teenagers of 13 years and above
from online medium. This act restricts some of their online freedom and put the
parents in some control.
This act had many flaws as it appears to more preserve. This act had many flaws
as it appears to more preserving children than protecting them, where parents
try to keep children accessing internet completely instead of helping them in
learning it[2]. Parents keep a tab on their children through this legislation.
In also online consent is not in a good position, since India doesn't have
proper data protection law setup. India had many attempts in the past for
statute of Data Protection, but all the commissions formed were not able to pin
down something concrete.
It 2017 a committee was formed which dealt with the idea forming the data
protection law in India in its report it did suggested laws based on general
data protection principles, but they were never implemented. A bill is in works
in India which might become data protection statute.
The Development of consent in online environment also have evolved in EU and
probably online consent is most refined in EU framework of Data Protection. The
EU framework introduced two new type of consent informed consent and privacy
nudges. Informed consent is where the data subject is before giving for any
service or product can read terms and conditions of website, it written in plain
and simple language. But the issue with this approach that data subjects or
people are sometimes unwilling to read so big privacy policy terms that makes
them lose interest.
The data subject rather giveaway is privacy than reading heavily informative
documents. This also becomes less effective[3]. The informed consent document
contains so many provisions and rules that it is hard to cope up. The language
of these documents also sometimes very hard to understand that a lay person does
not understand the policies completely.
The Privacy Nudges is a sort of experimental system where the law evolves with
cases and situation that comes into the court. But the issue with this is it
taking too much time and at the cost of a lay person misery[4]. The privacy
nudges and informed consent also took years before these concepts got perfected
in the eyes of law. Also, in other countries this concept has come into
question, but these few countries are close to do crack this code. Can there be
a system that globally possible and applied anywhere in the world?
Aim And Significance
The aim of this research is to identify the problem that. Firstly, why there is
no proper data protection laws in India. Secondly, can there be coherent legal
system where every state in the world can ably cooperate with minimum
resistance.
Thirdly, can the data protection strategy will be followed by the layman, that
will they accept it and follow or throw away their privacy again as in informed
consent. The legal research will try obtaining a global perspective on the
concept of consent online with a stable a Data Protection in India because a law
is no use if it cannot function flexibly.
The paper will focus mainly on how eliminate common threat of online consent. It
will try avoiding damages to data controller and data subject. This research is
to find a way to bring data subject and data controller where they can solve the
problems through negotiations without the need to go court.
Methodology
The methodology in this paper is comparative legal research methodology. The
reasoning behind this approach is because countries like UK, USA and EU have
quite developed their laws regarding this field. The consent in India is given
up very easily to cope with this problem first is to curtail the consent problem
even before a data protection law is implemented.
The comparative methodology is good way to approach because the law can be
implemented by provisions of UK, USA and EU. The strategy here is that the way
India has made the constitution of India where they combined parts of
constitutions of different states and not completely copy the source material.
The cooperative legal methodology with same pattern can also be applied globally
where members of United Nations gathering at a place discussing this problem and
using ideas of different states is a good way to approach.
The online consent needs this kind of attention because Covid-19 have pushed
everything online and now most population prefer doing things online without the
worry of their personal privacy because whatever they are going for becomes more
important at that point of time. The scope of cooperative method is to analyze
the data of other states provisions and find a way to improve upon and not steal
them completely.
The comparative study points out the flaws of the original provision and kicker
to it is that it does not have to even remotely same. The online environment
developed keeps on developing with no near future to stop and since the online
consent mostly ignored by common man the burden cannot be put on the data
controller alone since the justice system is all about fairness, the European
union framework on data protection puts more burden on the data controller than
on actual problem, these kinds of explanations can be done in comparative
methodology.
The states must realize the threat of online consent is very real and as much as
dangerous as it can get the research can help things in perspective on how to
control people's behavior without harming the integrity of the individual. The
comparative legal study can elect approach of something known as 'collaborative
consent'. In this consent will not be a one of situation it is a scenario where
both data controller and data subject can communicate and find common grounds to
deal with issue at hand.
This concept can be also used by International Court of Justice where the court
mitigate between two parties without the fear and pressure of respective states
that way parties are going to be in control of their own fate[5]. The court must
come to a scenario where world governments will make peace on the idea of online
consent and shared law where Court has most jurisdiction on this area of law a
since Online consent does not have any territorial Jurisdiction.
The Online consent is very important part of the Data Protection law which is
very wide pool. The situation is here many countries don't realize the threat of
this even India also so, the world has to be aware of this situation and deal
with it together.
Bibliography
- Andrea Slane and Ganaele Langlois, 'Debunking the Myth of Not My Bad:
Sexual Images, Consent, and Online Host Responsibilities in Canada' (2018)
30 Can J Women & L 42
- Christina Nguyen, 'Monitoring Your Teenagers' Online Activity: Why
Consent or Disclosure Should Be Required' (2016) 15 Seattle J Soc Just 261
- Jessica L Hubley, 'Online Consent and the On-Demand Economy: An Approach
for the Millennial Circumstance' (2016) 8 Hastings Sci & Tech LJ 1
- Joshua Warmund, 'Can COPPA Work - An Analysis of the Parental Consent
Measures in the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act' (2000) 11 Fordham
Intell Prop Media & Ent LJ 189
- Maurizio Borghi and Federico Ferretti and Stavroula Karapapa, 'Online
Data Processing Consent under EU Law: A Theoretical Framework and Empirical
Evidence from the UK' (2013) 21 Int'l JL & Info Tech 109
- Paul Bernal, 'Collaborative Consent: Harnessing the Strengths of the
Internet for Consent in the Online Environment' (2010) 24 Int'l Rev L
Computers & Tech 287
- Shara Monteleone, 'Addressing the Failure of Informed Consent in Online
Data Protection: Learning the Lessons from Behaviour-Aware Regulation'
(2015) 43 Syracuse J Int'l L & Com 69
- Sheng Yin Soh, 'Privacy Nudges: An Alternative Regulatory Mechanism to
Informed Consent for Online Data Protection Behaviour' (2019) 5 Eur Data
Prot L Rev 65
- Wayne R Barnes, 'Rethinking Spyware: Questioning the Propriety of
Contractual Consent to Online Surveillance' (2006) 39 UC Davis L Rev 1545
End-Notes:
- Jessica L Hubley, 'Online Consent and the On-Demand Economy: An Approach
for the Millennial Circumstance' (2016) 8 Hastings Sci & Tech LJ 1, Content
Downloaded from HeinOnline.com
- Joshua Warmund, 'Can COPPA Work - An Analysis of the Parental Consent
Measures in the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act' (2000) 11 Fordham
Intell Prop Media & Ent
LJ 189, Content Downloaded from HeinOnline
- Shara Monteleone, 'Addressing the Failure of Informed Consent in Online
Data Protection: Learning the Lessons from Behaviour-Aware Regulation'
(2015) 43 Syracuse J Int'l L & Com 6, Content Downloaded from HeinOnline
- Sheng Yin Soh, 'Privacy Nudges: An Alternative Regulatory Mechanism to
Informed Consent for Online Data Protection Behaviour' (2019) 5 Eur Data
Prot L Rev 65, Content Downloaded from HeinOnline
- Paul Bernal, 'Collaborative Consent: Harnessing the Strengths of the
Internet for Consent in the Online Environment' (2010) 24 Int'l Rev L
Computers & Tech 287, Content Downloaded from HeinOnline
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