Indian government’s hunger for e-surveillance as well as the pressure from the industrial bodies for weak and ineffective cyber laws is costing Indians their privacy and data protection law. The truth is that privacy rights in India are at sale.The e-surveillance projects include unique identification project of India (UID project) or Aadhar project of India. It is managed by Nandan Nilekani as the chairman of unique identification authority of India (UIDAI). Other projects include national intelligence grid (Natgrid), CCTNS, etc.
The ineffective and cyber criminal’s friendly laws include information technology act 2000. IT Act 2000 is the sole cyber law of India that has been made an instrumentality of e-surveillance by Indian government. Further, under pressure from industrial bodies, almost all the cyber crimes have been made bailable.
However, the gravest of all concerns is the high level of e-surveillance in India with no corresponding privacy laws, data protection laws and procedural safeguards. Even the IT Act 2000 is silent on the procedural safeguards against illegal and unconstitutional e-surveillance, internet censorship, etc.
In these circumstances, it is of paramount importance that suitable privacy laws and data protection laws must be enacted by Indian parliament as soon as possible.
