Digital Banking or Digital Rights Abuse?
Digital Banking or Digital Rights Abuse?
How ICICI Bank’s KYC Harassment Violates the Fundamental Right to Privacy
By Rakesh Raman
New Delhi | December 27, 2025
The relentless barrage of KYC emails, SMS alerts, and automated warnings sent by ICICI Bank is not a minor service lapse—it is a direct assault on the fundamental right to privacy guaranteed under the Indian Constitution. What is being passed off as “regulatory compliance” has, in practice, become a form of institutionalised digital harassment that thrives in the absence of accountability, regulatory courage, and respect for citizens’ rights.
In its landmark 2017 judgment in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) vs Union of India, the Supreme Court of India unequivocally held that privacy is a fundamental right intrinsic to life and personal liberty under Article 21. This ruling placed a constitutional obligation on both the State and private entities to respect individual autonomy, dignity, and informational self-determination. Yet, years later, banks like ICICI operate as though this judgment does not exist.
ICICI Bank continues to bombard customers with repetitive KYC messages despite having unchanged customer records and despite acknowledging, in its own communications, that customers may “ignore” these messages if KYC is already updated. This contradictory, careless, and intrusive conduct exposes a deeper malaise: the misuse of digital systems without consent, proportionality, or necessity—core principles laid down by constitutional jurisprudence.
As Rakesh Raman, founder of RMN Foundation and a national award-winning journalist, has stated:
“I am myself a victim of ICICI Bank’s digital excesses. Despite no change in my KYC details, I am repeatedly disturbed through emails and mobile alerts that serve no legitimate purpose. This is not compliance; it is coercion. When a bank violates my digital privacy with impunity, it exposes how hollow our so-called digital governance has become.”
KYC norms were designed to prevent financial crime, not to terrorise ordinary citizens through automated intimidation. Constitutional law is clear: any intrusion into privacy must satisfy legality, necessity, and proportionality. ICICI Bank’s conduct satisfies none of these tests. There is no legal necessity to repeatedly disturb a low-risk customer whose data has not changed. There is no proportionality in sending daily warnings without verification. And there is certainly no dignity in forcing citizens to either endure harassment or physically visit branches in an era that claims to be “digital-first.”
The problem is not technology; it is corporate lawlessness enabled by regulatory silence. Automated systems are being weaponised against consumers while banks evade responsibility by hiding behind algorithms, templates, and call-centre scripts. When customers complain, the system responds with more automation, not accountability. This is the antithesis of ethical digital banking.
Equally alarming is the absence of effective data protection enforcement in India. Without a strong, independent, and enforceable privacy regime, corporations face no consequences for spamming, profiling, or psychologically pressuring customers. The result is a digital ecosystem where citizens are treated as data points, not rights-bearing individuals.
ICICI Bank’s KYC harassment is therefore not an isolated grievance—it is a human-rights concern. The right to privacy is inseparable from mental peace, dignity, and freedom from arbitrary interference. When a powerful financial institution repeatedly invades this space without justification, it violates not only consumer trust but constitutional values.
The RMN Foundation views this case as emblematic of a larger crisis: the collapse of governance in the digital age. When corporations operate above the law and regulators look away, fundamental rights exist only on paper. Digital systems must serve people, not subjugate them. Compliance cannot be an excuse for cruelty, and automation cannot override constitutional morality.
Until banks are compelled to respect privacy, adopt minimal-intrusion practices, and face penalties for digital harassment, India’s digital transformation will remain deeply unjust—technologically advanced but democratically hollow.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.
As a technology and AI expert, his professional focus is on applying emerging AI and digital technologies to enhance decision-making, operational efficiency, transparency, and democratic participation in governance, media, and business systems. You can click here to view his full profile.
Top Image: ICICI Bank (Photo by Rakesh Raman | RMN News Service)
