Lead Story

Preserving Data Sanctity In The Era of Surveillance

Amid rising concerns over threat to privacy due to its surveillance approach, the government must up its game with more stringent and clear data protection laws if it wants to realise its ambition of a digital India

There is nothing like a free lunch, definitely not in the digital world. Hidden behind the veil of surveillance, security, convenience and other such words is a price tag costly beyond reason, but without any dearth of takers, both willing and unwilling. With the first step into the digital world, one gives an unspoken and unwritten consent to managers of this space—read all government and non-government entities—to legitimately or illegitimately feast on data of all kinds. That makes every person here an unwitting kingmaker in a world where data is the king. And, this kingmaker—the one whose data it is to share—is left with little control over who gets access to how much of the pie.