Personality rights have taken center stage in India as celebrities Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan recently gained legal protection against unauthorized use of their identities. The court’s decision bars digital platforms from exploiting their names, images, voices, and other personal attributes without explicit consent. This ruling highlights the urgent need for robust legal and technological safeguards to protect individuals—especially public figures—from misuse of their personality traits.
The Growing Importance of Personality Rights
Digital media platforms have made it easy to manipulate and distribute personal likenesses without consent. In response, courts are stepping in to uphold the rights of individuals over their own identities. This is especially important as technology such as artificial intelligence and deepfakes becomes more advanced, making it easier to create convincing but unauthorized content. Legal frameworks and tech solutions must now evolve together to ensure that celebrities and ordinary individuals alike can control how their image and voice are used online.
