Personality Rights vs. Privacy Rights: What is the Difference?
Personality Rights vs Privacy Rights. Read about the key differences between personality rights and privacy rights. Learn how constitutional provisions protect identity and private life.
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In the modern digitalised era the social media and Artificial Intelligence(AI) have become a part of everyone’s life. The boundaries of personal information have become a legal issue. As we move forward towards more digitalisation frequently hear about celebrities suing over unauthorized AI deepfakes and citizens fighting for their data
Both privacy rights and Personality rights have become crucial to our lives. Both serve to protect the individual from external intrusion. One protects rights to control how your identity is monetised while the other protects your right to be left alone or isolated.
What are Personality Rights?
Personality rights are also referred to as publicity rights. These rights protect an individual’s right to control the commercial use of their identity. This includes their name, image, likeness, voice, signatures or any distinct characteristics associated with them.
Personality rights can be licensed or commercialized. Celebrities sign brand endorsement deals and effectively licensing their personality rights such as likeness and voice to a brand for a specific duration.
Personality Rights can survive the individual. These rights also known as post-mortem publicity rights. The estates of deceased celebrities continue to manage and profit from their likenesses decades after their passing. For Example, Elvis Presley, Michael Jacksonor Marilyn Monroe
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Personality rights are not explicitly legally codified in a single jurisdiction. These are protected through a mix of trademark laws, passing-off actions and tort(civil) law.
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In India, Personality rights derive their legal safeguards from constitutional rights or statutory intellectual property laws. The Right to livelihood, the right to control one's commercial identity is seen as an extension of the right to practice a profession or trade. For example, Article 19(1)(g) of the Indian Constitution.
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Under Article 21 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court has noted that personality rights are a hybrid. The right to prevent someone from distorting someone’s image comes to be considered as personal dignity while the right to profit from it sounds like a property right (which is not a fundamental right)
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Personality Rights are mostly enforced through civil laws like passing off, misappropriation and Trademark laws.
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India’s celebrity rulings protecting icons like Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth, and Anil Kapoor from AI exploitation highlight how courts protect these attributes using a mix of common law and intellectual property principles.
What are the Privacy Rights?
Privacy rights are based on the fundamental human dignity of an individual. These were initially defined by Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis as the right to be left alone. Privacy rights cannot be bought, sold or transferred. Individua cannot sign a contract transferring your fundamental right to privacy to a corporation permanently.
Privacy rights protect individuals' personal space, home correspondence, health data and private life from unwanted intrusion by the state, other individuals and any other third party.
These rights expire upon the death of the individual. A deceased person no longer has a private life to defend under standard data privacy frameworks.
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Privacy rights recognised as a fundamental human right under Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights(UDHR).
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In India, Privacy rights are part of the Fundamental Rights under Article 21 (Protection of Life and Personal Liberty of the Indian Constitution. In K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017) Supreme Court of India declared as Fundamental Rights.
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Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) states that no one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with their privacy, family or home.
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In the United States the Supreme Court has interpreted the Fourth Amendment (protection against unreasonable searches and seizures) and the Fourteenth Amendment (Due Process Clause) as implicitly guaranteeing a constitutional right to privacy. Although it is not explicitly mentioned in the US Constitution.
Difference Between the Personality Rights and Privacy Rights
Privacy Rights are defensive. They act as a shield to block the public from entering your private domain. If a paparazzi drone photographs you inside your home, your privacy rights are violated.
Personality Rights are proprietary. They act as a gatekeeper to ensure that if your identity is used in the marketplace, you control it and get paid for it. If a company uses a photo of you taken in public to advertise their new skincare brand without your permission, your personality rights are violated.
| Feature | Privacy Rights | Personality Rights |
| Objective | The right to be left alone and maintain personal seclusion. | The right to control and commercialize one's unique identity traits. |
| Focus elements | personal secrets, personal data, home and correspondence from intrusion. | Preventing unauthorized commercial exploitation of name, image, voice, or likeness. |
| Constitutional Provision | Guaranteed as a Fundamental/Constitutional Right (Art. 21) | Derived from economic rights, trademark laws, common civil laws and freedoms of trade. |
| Target Audience | Equally applies to every human being inherently from birth. | Applies to all but holds significant economic and legal relevance for public figures and celebrities. |
| Transferability (Alienability) | Non-transferable. Cannot sell or permanently assign your fundamental right to privacy to a third party. | Transferable/Licensable. Individuals can sign endorsement deals, licensing their likeness or voice for commercial gain. |
| Post-Mortem Survival | Generally extinguishes upon death. A deceased person typically loses the standing to claim personal privacy. | Can survive after death (Post-Mortem Publicity Rights), allowing estates or heirs to manage and profit from the legacy. |
| Actionable Trigger | Breached when private spaces are invaded or personal data is leaked without consent. | Breached when an identity trait is used without consent to sell products or falsify endorsements like AI deepfakes. |
The difference between privacy and personality rights has blurred with the rise of generative AI, deepfakes and voice cloning. It violates personality rights by exploiting their unique identity trait for economic engagement. Simultaneously breaches their privacy or personal data rights if their proprietary data or private recordings were scraped without consent.
Manisha Waldia is a distinguished content strategist with 5 years of experience crafting premium educational content for UPSC and State PCS, with a focus on deep conceptual analysis across Polity, Geography, History, and Environment. She currently brings this expertise to Jagran Josh, where she covers major national and international events, current affairs, and static general knowledge. Over her career, Manisha's specialized insights have led her to curate high-impact materials and serve as a UPSC Mains answer-evaluator for India’s top institutes—including Drishti IAS, Shubhra Ranjan IAS, Study IQ, GS Score, and PWonlyIAS. She has also worked alongside leading NGOs like Oxfam India and Avani Kumaon.
Contact: manisha.waldia@jagrannewmedia.com
