The United States is engaged in a debate over the right balance between security and privacy in the light of news reports, based on leaked government documents, that revealed details about the surveillance programmes run by the National Security Agency. While the defenders of surveillance, authorised by the questionable Patriot Act, claim that it has disrupted plots and prevented terrorist attacks, its critics debunk the argument that a programme to collect huge amounts of information about Americans’ phone calls and Internet activity has led to foiling any terrorist plot. Until the leaks, Americans had no clue that their telephone calls were being monitored and, thus, their right to privacy was being throttled
If a comparatively free society with strong privacy laws like the US can have a security agency apparently running amok, there is no guarantee that the right to privacy will be respected in any other country. Such thoughts have arisen over reports that India is in the process of creating a multi-agency body called the National Cyber Co-ordination Centre, which will monitor all aspects of Internet use. With the use of Internet by individuals, outfits and companies increasing by leaps and bounds for professional, business and entertainment purposes, any agency which can monitor such activities will be privy to data that can compromise the Internet users’ interests. It will strike at the roots of the right to privacy.
The Supreme Court has said that the right to privacy is part of the right to protection of life and personal liberty, enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution and fundamental to the well-being of a nation. While the recent arrest of cricketers, based on the tapping of their phone calls, might have been justified, it is also a pointer to the eavesdropping capabilities of police. To prevent US-style scandals in India, it is necessary to ensure all agencies involved in surveillance are governed by mechanisms that consider citizens’ right to privacy sacrosanct.