Politics of Cam-Era

Politics of Cam-era

A battery of cameras flashing and myself treading my way through a crowd of admirers is one of the romantic fancies that often frequent my daydreams. Needless to say, most of us derive a great of deal of pleasure and contentment from posting the latest photographs in the social media platforms and thus broadcast ourselves. All these are certainly indicative of man’s basic instinct to be recognised, represented and be made visible. However one does not breathe easy at places with the warning plank “You are surveillance”. Surveillance has become an ubiquitous phenomenon with CCTV cameras placed high in the walls of every school, college, shopping mall and government institutions. Apprehensions escalating, serious reflections on surveillance and its dimensions have become the need of the hour.

The world was shocked to hear the revelations of the whistle blower Edward Snowden regarding the US National Security Agency (NSA) snooping of domestic and foreign email accounts. The new age guerrillas, Edward Snowden and Julian Assange could bring the American government to its knees by showcasing to the world the depth and gravity of US surveillance mechanisms. In the overall list of countries spied upon by NSA programmes, it is small wonder, India ranks fifth with billions of pieces of information plucked from its telephone and internet networks. The American snooping revelations proved that digital espionage has crossed all bounds of decency, questioning the very notion of sovereignty of nations. Edward Snowden has rightly said: “They are never about terrorism; they are about economic spying, social control and diplomatic manipulations. They are about power.”

While nations like US mostly spy on foreign nations, the world’s largest democracy is experimenting surveillance mechanisms on its own citizens. The UPA flagship programmed Adhaar project is mired in controversies since its announcement. The Adhaar is alleged to be a scheme designed to protect Cenhtral Intelligence Agency (CIA) interests. The Adhaar project is to be analysed in the light of disclosures of the reputed American journalist, Edwin Black in his book “IBM and the Holocaust” on how the American MNC, International Business Machines (IBM) aided the identification project implemented by Hitler in Nazi Germany which had the hidden aim of spotting Jews in the German population. If the project had not been implemented millions of Jews would have escaped the gas chambers. The Adhaar project, facilitating the recording of an individual’s minute personal details including the biometric data, also leaves sufficient room for apprehension in people’s minds. The Central Monitory System (CMS) proposed recently by the central government is also subject to criticism from various quarters. The CMS would give the monitoring authority the absolute power to monitor all phone and online communication in the country. In this context it would be foolish to think that social media platforms are safe from the clutches of online surveillance.