Raise a toast to nine judges of the Supreme Court (SC) who have said your right to privacy is fundamental, ranking right up there with rights to life and freedom of expression. Privacy as a fundamental right probably didn’t matter much in 1954, when the first anti-privacy judgement was delivered. It matters now, when companies like Alphabet (owner of Google), Microsoft, online retailers, Facebook and Twitter can snoop into your finances, links with family and friends, mails and opinions.

The SC order implies that your data belongs to you, not to companies or regimes. Big Brother regimes try to manipulate every thought and action of their citizens. The latter descend into a Stalinist hell of self-censorship, paranoia, spying and snitching on each other. In 1952, the Soviets worked out a telephone-based system that allowed a group of people involved in launching rockets and missiles, to communicate across vast distances via a phone network. This was the ancestor of the internet.

Fast forward to 2012, when Russia drew up its Internet Blacklist. Apparently, this was to protect children from harmful content, curb drug use and other evils. That was the fudge. Soon, it expanded to include sites ‘inciting hatred’, ‘suspected extremism’ and ‘deviant behaviour’ including gay relationships. By August 2014, a ‘Bloggers’ Law’ came into force, where all Wi-Fi and chat-room operators had to collect users’ data, verify their passports and store them. Social media was controlled by a complex thingummy called Deep Packet Inspection.

In July 2016, Russia passed the Yarovskya Law, forcing telecom operators to record and store all conversation, message and internet traffic for six months. This November, a new law will ban all software and websites that try to go around Russian filters. Phrases like ‘Caucasus’, ‘Crimea’ and ‘Ukraine’ are taboo; Bitcoin has been blocked recently.

All this operates under the System of Operational Investigative Measures (Sorm), which reports to the FSB, successor of the KGB. Sorm arm-twists telecom and hardware companies to allow snooping. It also mandates inspection, arrest and shutdown without warrants.

On September 20, 1987, the first email was sent out from a primitive system in China. It said, ‘Across the Great Wall, we can reach every corner in the world.’ What irony. In less than 15 years, a system called the Great Firewall (GFW) controlled all online traffic. In 2003, GFW spawned Golden Shield to monitor and censor content. All backbone providers are owned by the communist state.

Before it walked out of China, Google agreed to block searches on phrases like ‘Tiananmen’ or ‘democracy’. Companies like Yahoo and Microsoft have bowed to all strictures of Beijing. Ironically, almost all the hardware that runs Beijing’s spying machinery is outsourced from US companies like Cisco Systems.

Whistleblower Robert Snowden showed how the US’ National Security Agency (NSA) spiced up its mandate to track terror by spying on US citizens, as well as those from friendly nations. Snowden’s revelations implied that once data is centralised by the State, it is easier for online crooks to steal vast chunks of information. Financial information ‘dumps’ are sold on the Dark Internet, and used to hack into personal accounts or bank systems to steal cash.

In the last three years, India has lurched towards large-scale data snooping. Its primary vector is the Aadhaar ID number and card. The original idea was to stop subsidy leakage. It is now mandatory to have an Aadhaar number to file tax returns and open new bank accounts, enlarging the scope of financial fraud. Infants in Anganwadi crèches now need Aadhaar to get a midday meal. Never mind media reports that suggest that the Aadhaar system is about as secure as a sieve.

Petitions to rein in Aadhaar begged the question whether your data was yours or whether companies and governments could filch it. On Thursday, the Supreme Court made your right to privacy, including personal information, a fundamental right. We might yet pull back from the abyss.