Privacy and Surveillance Conflict: A Comparative Analysis of the laws in the USA and India.

Abstract

The Right to Privacy and the need for Surveillance has always remained a contentious issue between citizens and law enforcement agencies. This paper attempts to analyse the various laws relating to Surveillance in the largest and oldest democracies of the world, India and the United States of America. Regardless of vast variances in socio-economic and political realities, these two countries qualify as intriguing focuses for study. Though the Rig ht to Privacy is generally accepted as a fundamental right throughout the nations of the world, the primacy given to ‘National Security’ and simultaneously balancing it with individual liberties seems to be a recognised phenomenon in both these jurisdictions.