Data Surveillance: A Protection to Privacy or a Tool for Government?

Data protection as we all know is the most sensitive issue not only in India but across the world. India, is one of the largest country with world’s largest democracies, but there still is no single legislation in the country which specifically speaks about the data protection and its privacy. In the year of 2018, a new draft of Personal Data protection was introduced in the Indian parliament. The surveillance activity across the country has increased vividly because of cross border terrorisation and terrorist threats which has impacted the entire world. The surveillance activities are also a threat to privacy of the citizens and there has been certain cases where data is leaked. As the Indian government with the help of private sector set up their digital infrastructure and has extended a large number of internet services, issues of digital rights, data ownership and privacy protection. One of the landmark cases of data protection and privacy The Right to Privacy is a concept which is multidimensional in nature and is most recognized in the modern society in both the eye of the law as well as in common parlance. Talking with regard to Indian Constitution, Article 21 , which protects the right to privacy and promotes the dignity of the individual in the recent years has grown at a very significant level. With the advent increase and development of digitization, it has become very much important to protect and safeguard the right and data of the citizens and their privacy and this research paper tries to shed some light on the same topic with the chapterisation process which is further divided into two parts.