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            <article-id pub-id-type="doi">
                10.65919/ijacst.2026.v2i5001            </article-id>

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                    Right to Privacy and Digital Surveillance in India: A Constitutional and Legal Analysis                </article-title>
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                <p>The rapid growth of digital technologies has significantly expanded the capacity of governments and private entities to collect, monitor, analyse, and retain personal information. This development has intensified concerns regarding the constitutional protection of privacy in India. The present study examines the right to privacy as a fundamental right and evaluates the legal framework governing digital surveillance. It analyses the constitutional principles established in Justice K. S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India, with particular emphasis on legality, legitimate purpose, necessity, proportionality, and procedural safeguards. The study further examines relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000, the Telecommunications Act, 2023, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. It explores major forms of surveillance, including communication interception, metadata monitoring, location tracking, facial recognition, biometric databases, social-media monitoring, and automated profiling. The analysis identifies several concerns, such as limited independent oversight, lack of transparency, broad governmental exemptions, mass-data collection, weak accountability, technological misuse, and inadequate remedies. The study concludes that surveillance may serve legitimate objectives, including national security and criminal investigation, but must remain constitutionally controlled. A balanced framework requires clear legal authority, limited data collection, secure storage, defined retention periods, independent review, institutional accountability, and effective remedies against unlawful or disproportionate surveillance.</p>
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