Watching the Watchers: AI Surveillance, Privacy, and India’s Constitutional Vacuum in the Shadow of the EU AI Act

This paper examines gaps in India’s regulation of AI driven surveillance related to privacy and civil liberties. Laws have been passed the pace that AI surveillance is being adopted in corporate workplaces and government facial recognition systems. The Supreme Court’s K.S. Puttaswamy (2017) ruling on the right to privacy as a fundamental right does not mean however, that India has specific regulations nor effective enforcement of AI surveillance. Corporate surveillance is virtually unregulated and government surveillance is too easily lead astray with tools like facial recognition systems. The paper compares India’s approach to those of the U.S., EU and China, commenting on the EU’s rights focused AI Act, the U.S.’s stop gap measures and China’s state driven approach. The paper advocates for India to creating a coherent legal framework between technological innovation and protection of fundamental rights, and implements the globalization precedents and strengthened accountability mechanisms to prevent enhanced AI surveillance.