Under The Algorithmic Eye: Evaluating AI- Driven Surveillance And The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023
- IJLLR Journal
- 1 hour ago
- 1 min read
Amardeep, PhD Research Scholar, Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala
ABSTRACT
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 is commonly presented as the statute that gives effect to the right to informational privacy recognised in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India. This article tests that presentation against a practice the Act is poorly equipped to govern, namely the use of artificial intelligence by police and administrative agencies to identify and track individuals in public space. The Act is built for consent based collection by private fiduciaries. Algorithmic surveillance does not work that way. Data is captured without any act of provision by the individual, and the injury it produces is an injury of inference. Section 17(2) (a), which permits the Central Government to exempt any instrumentality of the State from the whole of the Act by a simple notification, then turns that gap into a permission. Reading the exemption power together with Sections 7 and 36 of the Act, Rule 23 of the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025, and the amendment of Section 8(1)(j) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, the article argues that the framework fails the legality limb of the proportionality standard well before any question of necessity or balancing is reached. A reform agenda follows, drawing on the European Union's Artificial Intelligence Act and on R (Bridges) v. Chief Constable of South Wales Police.
Keywords: informational privacy; facial recognition; Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023; proportionality; algorithmic accountability; state surveillance.
