Last week a Delhi teenager circulated on mobile phones sexually explicit shots of himself and a friend, sparking off a debate on technology and privacy. By most accounts, it would seem, nothing is private any longer. Miniaturised telephones can now be accessories in any endeavour to surreptitiously record and disseminate photographs and videos. Close circuit TVs are in any case covering greater and greater acreages of public spaces. Internet service providers and security agencies track our roamings on the World Wide Web. Our credit histories are being meticulously constructed. And not only are our telephone records easily accessible, they also give evidence of our geographical coordinates at any point in time. In other words, it is not just Big Brother watching you, even corporate and social busybodies could be mapping your life.Modernity and technological advances are drastically altering private domains. Modernity, as an impetus to individualism, has in fact expanded private domains. Making life’s big and small decisions is no longer deemed open to public intrusion, as long as they do not contravene the laws of the land. This is why there was such outrage recently over a Haryana caste panchayat’s attempt to tell a couple whether they could remain married or not. Alas, technology, in various ways, appears to be invading much of this private space claimed.How does one deal with such intrusion? To turn Luddite and ban new technologies would be illiberal as well as a foolish repudiation of science’s benefits. Instead, norms need to be negotiated so that people cannot deploy gadgetry to harm others. Some agencies, for instance, are calling for alternations in mobile phones so that they beep each time the camera is operated, thereby alerting bystanders. Governments are already promising enhanced encryption of surveillance data, so that it is used for security procedures alone. However, privacy will ultimately depend in large part on individual trust. New technologies are bound to be accompanied by a new constellation of manners and conventions.
