{"id":197117,"date":"2022-07-24T10:07:14","date_gmt":"2022-07-24T04:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=197117"},"modified":"2022-09-27T13:59:09","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T08:29:09","slug":"answered-an-overhaul-of-surveillance-laws-is-necessary-to-handle-the-present-day-surveillance-challenges-discuss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answered-an-overhaul-of-surveillance-laws-is-necessary-to-handle-the-present-day-surveillance-challenges-discuss\/","title":{"rendered":"[Answered] An overhaul of surveillance laws is necessary to handle the present-day surveillance challenges. Discuss."},"content":{"rendered":"<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"616\"><strong>Introduction:\u00a0<\/strong>Contextual introduction.<br \/>\n<strong>Body:\u00a0<\/strong>Explain why overhaul of surveillance laws is necessary?.\u00a0\u00a0Also, write some measures to improve the present surveillance laws.<br \/>\n<strong>Conclusion<\/strong>: Write a way forward.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>The <strong>\u2018Freedom in the World\u2019 report <\/strong>by Freedom House has changed India\u2019s status from \u2018free\u2019 to <strong>\u2018partly free\u2019 in 2021<\/strong>. It has cited the alleged use of Pegasus on Indian citizens as one of the reasons for the downgrade. From targeting activists and journalists for civil and political purposes to targeting litigants for commercial benefits, the surveillance industry is becoming increasingly accessible.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why<\/strong> <strong>overhaul of surveillance laws is necessary?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>Information Technology Act, 2000<\/strong> and the <strong>Indian Telegraph Act, 1885<\/strong> concentrate surveillance powers in the hands of the executive, without any<strong> independent <\/strong>judicial or parliamentary<strong> oversight provisions<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>These legislations are from an era before spyware such as Pegasus were developed. Thus, do not respond to the <strong>modern-day surveillance industry<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The Indian \u2018surveillance for hire\u2019 industry is growing. These firms offer their services to anyone who can pay, to spy on indicated targets by hacking their devices.<\/li>\n<li>The proposed <strong>data protection law<\/strong> does not address these concerns, instead, provides wide exemptions to the Government relating to select agencies from the application of the law.<\/li>\n<li>Neither the IT Act nor the 2009 Interception Rules, provide a\u00a0<strong>grievance redressal mechanism<\/strong>for person under surveillance. Due to the strict confidentiality provisions, the persons find it impossible to ascertain and prove that he\/she has been under surveillance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What can be done?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Judicial oversight<\/strong>: In order to satisfy the ideal of\u00a0<strong>due process of law<\/strong>, there needs to be an oversight from the judiciary to decide whether specific instances of surveillance are proportionate, whether alternatives are available etc.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Strong data protection law<\/strong>: To protect the individual right to privacy, including protection from surveillance and unauthorized data collection by government agencies.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Applying surveillance more objectively:<\/strong>In place of using terms like \u2018national sovereignty\u2019 or \u2018public security\u2019, situations attracting surveillance by the state should be made more precise and objective.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Independent review committee:\u00a0<\/strong> or a \u2018Privacy Commission\u2019 comprising of retired civil servants, retired judges and civil society representatives to oversee the surveillance requests of government.<\/li>\n<li>Laws should be amended and narrowed by providing an\u00a0<strong>indicative list of what constitutes abuse of surveillance<\/strong>, with stringent penal consequences.<\/li>\n<li>A collective decision <strong>banning the use of private spyware<\/strong> will be a step forward.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the absence of the redress to those who approach authorities against unlawful surveillance, the right to privacy may soon become obsolete. An overhaul of surveillance laws is necessary to prevent the indiscriminate monitoring of people and entities by the state and private actors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction:\u00a0Contextual introduction. Body:\u00a0Explain why overhaul of surveillance laws is necessary?.\u00a0\u00a0Also, write some measures to improve the present surveillance laws. Conclusion: Write a way forward. The \u2018Freedom in the World\u2019 report by Freedom House has changed India\u2019s status from \u2018free\u2019 to \u2018partly free\u2019 in 2021. It has cited the alleged use of Pegasus on Indian citizens&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answered-an-overhaul-of-surveillance-laws-is-necessary-to-handle-the-present-day-surveillance-challenges-discuss\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">[Answered] An overhaul of surveillance laws is necessary to handle the present-day surveillance challenges. Discuss.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":3,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1698847730},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}