• Mr. S Freddy Singaraj

Technological developments and internet has revolutionised the world we live in. It has enabled scaling down the challenges of distance, borders and time, resulting in corporations and governments comprehensively capitalising on this trend. But as a double edged sword, misuse of these technologies has also led to the birth of cybercrimes and cyber terrorism. Thereby compelling the government to resort to desperate measures of digital surveillance. With new technologies embedded with digital cameras, biometric scanners and Global Positioning Systems, it is now even more convenient to track, monitor and observe almost all communications and movements. Advancements in technology has contributed largely to the spread of state sponsored mass surveillance. Today governments can collect, monitor and intercept records of several communication data that can be processed at lightning speeds to decrypt location, transactions, habits, preferences, opinions etc. of individuals and groups. This is further used for aggressive ethnic profiling. Surveillance cannot be restricted and relegated to communist, totalitarian or autocratic governments. In an ever changing digital world, Democratic nations too have adopted mass surveillance as a tool to curb terrorism, fight crimes against national security, prevent financial frauds, and control an ever growing list of cybercrimes. The government articulates its argument for surveillance as a need to protect national security. It is unfair for the state to trade citizen’s privacy and liberty for security. We live in an age of surveillance. It is a growing concern that as a society we fail to grapple with the idea of state surveillance, where at the core it threatens an individual’s Fundamental Rights and Civil Liberties. Having perfected the rhetoric that surveillance protects the nation from several threats, the government uses this as a shield to weigh down over privacy and other concerns. Surveillance is a threat not limited to only privacy but extends to other rights and liberties that are now at risk. The erosion of civil rights due to state surveillance is a concern and a threat that needs constitutional safeguards and society’s attention. This papers attempts to analyse the dangers of state sponsored surveillance and its potential to threaten and harm fundamental rights and civil liberties as a façade for national security.

Privacy, Surveillance, Fundamental Rights, Civil Liberties

"Shroud of Surveillance and Its Threat to Fundamental Rights and Civil Liberties", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 4, page no.57-62, April-2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIRBH06007.pdf

"Shroud of Surveillance and Its Threat to Fundamental Rights and Civil Liberties", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 4, page no. pp57-62, April-2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIRBH06007.pdf