Privacy, Identity Theft and Digital Legal Frameworks: An Analytical Study of Laws, Social Media and Technology

Abstract

The digital revolution has dramatically altered how individuals share, store and protect personal information, leading to unprecedented privacy challenges. This paper explores the legal and behavioral aspects of privacy and identity theft across multiple contexts, drawing on leading studies and legal analyses from the United States and India. Key areas examined include the Federal Trade Commission’s evolving “common law of privacy” (Hartzog et al., 2014), generational differences in online privacy attitudes (Turow et al., 2010), platform-specific privacy behaviors (Passerini et al., 2007) and management of privacy settings on social media (Madden, 2012). The work further reviews challenges posed by big data (Cukier et al., 2013), reasonable expectations of privacy (McGill et al., 2007), contextual privacy norms (Nissenbaum, 2009) and specific privacy violations such as revenge porn (Franks, 2014). Indian legal perspectives, including analyses of Aadhaar (Mohanty, 2015; Dhara, 2019), cyber laws (Sridhar, 2015), judicial interpretations (Basu, 2019) and the constitutionalization of private law (De, 2011), are discussed in detail, highlighting gaps in protection and enforcement. Behavioral studies on privacy paradoxes, smartphone data risks and identity theft are integrated to provide a nuanced understanding of user behavior and systemic vulnerabilities. By synthesizing interdisciplinary perspectives—legal, technological and behavioral—the paper argues for stronger legal frameworks, public awareness and ethical technology design to protect privacy in an era of pervasive surveillance and data exploitation.