SC seeks explanation from Google India about working of live location

On Friday, the Supreme Court requested an affidavit from Google India explaining how the Google PIN for live location functions and requested a response from the company.

The order was issued by a bench of justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan, who clarified that the company was not being made a party to the case and that its sole request was for information regarding how Google PINs function.

In order to determine whether an accused person could be made to continuously provide the police with his real-time location via phone in order to be granted bail, it was decided to investigate how Google PINs operate. The Delhi High Court had placed a condition on an accused person in a money laundering case, and the court had previously asked the ED to respond.

The supreme court ordered them to clarify for us what a condition like that would actually mean in practice. A person is placed under certain restrictions after being granted freedom. However, isn’t it a violation of his right to privacy that they are following him around after being granted bail? The ED had appealed the accused’s bail decision, and the court was considering their case. It had previously questioned the condition but refused to stay bail.