PRIVACY RIGHTS AND SOCIAL SURVEILLANCE IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA

India’s digital boom hasn’t just made life more connected. It’s also brought a flood of new tech that tracks people by state, by businesses, and pretty much everywhere. Take the biometric systems: they decide who gets food or welfare. Or the facial recognition cameras popping up in public places. Or laws that hand huge interception powers to government officials, with little real oversight. Surveillance in India keeps growing, and honestly, the rules meant to protect everyone can’t keep up. This paper digs into the clash between the constitutional right to privacy, which the Supreme Court cemented in the landmark Puttaswamy case, and this rising tide of social surveillance. It pulls together legal debate, theory, and real-life stories to show something blunt: surveillance isn’t some neutral force. It hits women, Dalits, minorities, and rural folks the hardest. And sure, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act of 2023 sounded like progress, but it still leaves big loopholes in those same old exemptions that stop anyone from actually holding surveillance accountable. In the end, the paper doesn’t just throw up its hands. It offers solid steps for fixing the mess.