Should ‘Location Data' Be Considered As ‘Personal Data' Under Indian Privacy Laws?

The analysis of location data has seen a meteoric rise to the top of many marketeers' efforts to understand consumer patterns; in turn, they give consumers exactly what they need, when they need it.

Now that's a good thing for the consumer, right? But is it okay that their apps know where they were last night? By simply using the internet or enabling location services while using apps – should their data become fair game?

And what if it's not being used to further business interests but to stop the spread of a virus, as was done with the Covid-19 pandemic? Governments used location data to track affected individuals, map people they were in contact with and alert others in the locality of the same, which did help contain the virus to a certain extent.