Data Privacy And State Surveillance: An Analysis Of Competing Interests In The Indian Context

Abstract

The burgeoning digital landscape of the country presents a complex interplay between an individual's right to data privacy in the digital arena and the State's need to engage in surveillance activities in the interests of security and public order. The dichotomous relationship sits at the crux of the debate presented within this present paper, and the paper attempts to understand and analyze the intricate relationship of these competing interests. The paper delineates the laws governing surveillance practices in the state, and subsequently, explores and examines the development of the laws of privacy, that coincidentally have evolved when questions regarding the extent of permissible surveillance in the nation have been raised, and in this context, seeks to carve out a legal framework wherein surveillance is permitted only within the aegis of the existing jurisprudence of privacy rights. Through a critical analysis of the existing jurisprudence from both sides of the debate, the paper also looks towards the American and European legal positions governing the dichotomous position of data privacy vis-à-vis surveillance, and seeks to understand the position that has been adopted therein, with an aim to inculcate some of the principles evolved there into the Indian legal framework.