Topic Of The Day:-“American exceptionalism”
Last year, in November, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Carpenter v. United States, which many commentators termed as one of the most critical electronic surveillance case in decades. Among other finely threaded legal arguments was the “third party doctrine”. It reasons that once a person turns over her data to a third party (such as a bank or a website), her expectation of privacy ends. This severely cripples the immunity that protects people from “unreasonable search and seizures”, thereby permitting the government to requisition data from third parties such as banks. Our Supreme Court realised the error in this narrow doctrine, rejecting it more than a decade ago in the case of District Registrar v. Canara Bank, ruling that our privacy protections would continue to apply as they ultimately vest in a person rather than the possession of personal artefacts. Another area where the U.S. seems to be a poor defender of privacy and data protection is when it comes to the conduct of private parties. With revelations around Cambridge Analytica and growing concern around the power of technology companies, new concerns have come to the fore. The consumer interest approach enforced by the Federal Trade Commission for unfair and deceptive trade practices and a panoply of sectoral regulators and state laws are an ineffective substitute to a federal regulator that draws its power from a comprehensive data protection law. This is not only a deficiency in the absence of law, but a fundamental design error in which legal regulation has been designed to protect property, rather than people.
While the U.S. may present a dismal picture for data protection, it has seen an incremental movement towards surveillance reform after the disclosures made by Edward Snowden on surveillance programmes. While data protection and surveillance may seem like separate issues, they build off each other since they both concern personal data — greater government surveillance weakens and hurts data protection offered by private companies. Even before the disclosures, the U.S. had an imperfect body under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has the legal authority to pass interception orders. We in India have no such counterpart or even a bare acknowledgement that interception requires prior judicial sanction. Even existing procedures which are supposed to act as safeguards are flouted with little repercussions. For instance, evidence which is gathered illegally in the U.S. may eventually lead to an acquittal, but our courts have consistently reasoned that such an impropriety at best could lead to a departmental inquiry against the erring official. Even when it seems we are much more progressive in our constitutional doctrine, there always remains room for learning.
MEANINGS AND WORDS
1) Breaching
Meaning: Break or fail to observe (a law, agreement, or code of conduct).
Example: “These outside bodies are bootlegging albums and breaching copyright”
Synonyms: Break, Contravene
2) Surveillance
Meaning: Close observation, especially of a suspected spy or criminal.
Example: “He found himself put under surveillance by British military intelligence”
Synonyms: Observation, Scrutiny
3) Cripples
Meaning: Cause a severe and almost insuperable problem for.
Example: “Developing countries are crippled by their debts”
Synonyms: Ruin, Destroy
Antonyms: Boost
4) Requisition
Meaning: Demand the use or supply of (something) by official order.
Example: “The government had assumed powers to requisition cereal products at fixed prices”
synonyms: Commandeer, Appropriate
5) Artefacts
Meaning: Something observed in a scientific investigation or experiment that is not naturally present but occurs as a result of the preparative or investigative procedure.
Example: “The curvature of the surface is an artefact of the wide-angle view”
6) Panoply
Meaning: An extensive or impressive collection.
Example: “A deliciously inventive panoply of insults”
synonyms: Array, Range
7) Dismal
Meaning: Causing a mood of gloom or depression.
Example: “The dismal weather made the late afternoon seem like evening”
Synonyms: Dingy, Dim
8) Concern
Meaning: Have a specific connection with or responsibility for.
Example: “Those concerned in industry, academia, and government”
Synonyms: Involve oneself in
9) Interception
Meaning: Action taken to prevent someone or something from continuing to a destination.
Example: “The interception of arms shipments”
10) Repercussions
Meaning: An unintended consequence of an event or action, especially an unwelcome one.
Example: “The move would have grave repercussions for the entire region”
Synonyms: Consequences, Result
11) Acquittal
Meaning: A judgement or verdict that a person is not guilty of the crime with which they have been charged.
Example: “The trial resulted in an acquittal”
Synonyms: Absolution, Clearing
Antonyms: Conviction
12) Erring
Meaning: Be mistaken or incorrect; make a mistake.
Example: “The judge had erred in ruling that the evidence was inadmissible”
Synonyms: Mistake, Miscalculate
Antonyms: Innocent, Well behaved
