NEW DELHI: Just the act of operating an iPhone or iPad which uses fingerprints to open the device and allows the operator to store the impression and such actions, along with sharing of personal data by people on social network sites, makes defining breach of privacy a challenging task, the Supreme Court observed on Friday.With India overtaking the US in the number of internet and mobile phone users, petitioners on Thursday prodded the Supreme Court to examine right to privacy in the digital world where users’ data is shared without regulation.Senior advocate Sajan Poovayya made an appealing presentation on the dangers in the web world on breach of privacy of individuals and their profiling based on habits, credit card purchases and social network messages.GPS-enabled smart phones could record each and every movement of individuals and use this data to find out places frequented by the individual, senior advocate Sajan Poovayya said and asked: “Would this not amount to breach of privacy?” He said US has 22 crore internet users and 32 crore mobile phone users. In contrast, India has 35 crore internet users and 118 crore mobile phone users. “Digital reputation is as important as physical reputation,” he said.Justice D Y Chandrachud, part of the nine-judge bench headed by CJI J S Khehar , said: “Unlimited volume of data is shared every minute and these must be getting analysed. A possible way out in this vastness for protection of privacy could be that the government must specify the purpose for collection of personal details and ensure that it was used for that specified purpose only.”“But, look at the other possibility. One operating an iPhone or an iPad uses fingerprint to open the device and thereby assigning his fingerprint to the private operator. A vast majority of persons using social networking sites are unconcerned about the purpose for which their personal data is taken, analysed and used commercially. How does one draw a line between sharing personal data voluntarily and breach of privacy,” he asked.When Poovayya persisted for expansion of the scrutiny to factor in the rapidly expanding web world and possible misuse of personal details of users while defining right to privacy, Justice J Chelameswar said: “For the last 70 years, we (the SC ) have been looking for the contours of freedom of speech, which is ever so expanding. So, it will be extremely difficult to take into consideration the immeasurable possibilities that the digital world holds for future ... We can only consider what is happening right now.”Poovayya said in the absence of a declaration from the SC to the effect that right to privacy is fundamental to Indians, the government collecting biometrics of every citizen would analyse and exploit it for decades.Justice Chandrachud said: “If the government collates crime data to profile a community as criminal, then it is surely violation of right to privacy. But, if the government collates data to profile areas with poverty prevalence to focus availability of food grains, could it be termed violation of right to privacy?” Arguments would continue onTuesday.