Governments worldwide increasingly wield technologically sophisticated surveillance apparatuses, justified under national security and administrative progress, threatening individual autonomy and liberty by meticulously archiving digital activities. India's landmark 2017 Supreme Court ruling in _Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India_ recognized privacy as a fundamental right under Article 21, extending to informational self-determination.
However, India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP Act) of August 2023, while establishing user consent, grants broad state exemptions under Section 17(2) for national security and public order, lacks rigorous proportionality safeguards, and amends the Right to Information Act via Section 44(3) to restrict personal data disclosure. The upcoming Digital India Bill (2025 draft) further risks executive overreach. In contrast, Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), enacted in 2018, stands as a global benchmark, empowering individuals with rights like data portability and erasure, enforced by significant fines and extraterritorial reach. The United States, however, maintains a fragmented approach, lacking a unified federal framework, relying on sectoral laws and contested Fourth Amendment interpretations, leaving vast consumer data unregulated.
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