Safeguarding Privacy Or Enabling State Surveillance? Unpacking The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023
- IJLLR Journal
- 6 hours ago
- 1 min read
Aman Singh, Research Scholar, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, India
Anjani Agarwal, Research Associate, Hon’ble High Court of Jharkhand, Ranchi, India
ABSTRACT
Fears about protecting personal data have become crucial in an era characterized by a data boom, growing digitization, and quick technical breakthroughs. It is now crucial for both governments and businesses to create more transparent data privacy standards due to the increase in digital monitoring, data breaches, and privacy violations. In order to protect people’s personal information in India, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 was created. Its goal is to control the gathering, storing, and processing of data. Nonetheless, the Act of 2023 has number of provisions that provide the government access to personal information under certain circumstances, particularly when it comes to maintaining public order, national security, and crime prevention. These exclusions have sparked grave worries about the possibility of privacy erosion and the establishment of a surveillance state, despite being justified legally and morally as a means of preserving security and safeguarding citizens. Those provisions are examined in this article, which looks at the risk that it presents in permitting governmental monitoring while noting the act’s capacity to preserve individual privacy. The provisions of the Act are analysed from two different points of view: one that believes they empower users by giving them greater control over their personal data, and another that fears they may unintentionally allow for data exploitation and espionage.
Keywords: Data, Surveillance, Privacy, Safeguard, State
