 India is big on surveillance. In fact, you could call it a global surveillance innovator. Case in point: Sanchar Saathi, a state-authored spy app the government quietly demanded be pre-installed on all phones sold to its population of more than 1.4 billion people. Following widespread backlash, the order was rescinded. The Internet Freedom Foundation called this attempt an effort to convert “every smartphone sold in India into a vessel for state-mandated software that the user cannot meaningfully refuse, control, or remove.” India’s privacy policies rank among the world’s lowest, surpassed in most surveys only by the usual suspects, including China and Russia. Speaking of Russia, last August it mandated the pre-installation of the Kremlin’s Messenger Max app on every phone and tablet sold. So, if anything, India has joined the race for last place. Lest we gloat, however, while India is third from last, the United States is seventh from last. Fully 40 countries outrank us (Ireland, France, and Portugal are among the best-rated nations). All of this “matters for the U.S.,” warns Rana Ayyub in The Washington Post, “because the underlying pressures are strikingly familiar.” Those pressures are manifold and include the following (with links to recent examples of each):
India is a mirror for our democracy – “a preview,” to quote Ayyub again, “of the political, social, and democratic costs of letting state access to digital infrastructure expand unchecked.” A debate about whether or not to place meaningful checks on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act looms this spring. It may be our last chance to begin reclaiming our Founders’ original defense of privacy – what Justice Louis Brandeis would eventually label the “right to be let alone.” It may already be too late for India. It is not too late for us. Comments are closed.
|
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed