Editor,
Did writer George Orwell know that we would one day become victims of mass government surveillance?
In his cautionary tale “1984” (published in 1949), Big Brother controls the population of Oceania through many ways. One of these ways is surveillance; monitoring everyone’s every move. This instills fear in the people in their everyday lives to carry out their moves and actions a certain way. Since the novel’s publication over 74 years ago, we assumed that the dangers of mass surveillance and social control could only originate in the state. But we were wrong! This error has left us unprotected from an equally pernicious but profoundly different threat to freedom and democracy.
Today in the digital age of 2023, Meghalaya witnessed the emergence of a breed known as ‘hackers’ who performs and promotes the art of digital exploitation; even the Meghalaya Police is seen embracing hacking/social engineering to facilitate their “CCTNS” activities; however deployed in secret and without a clear basis in law.
In the instances where the Meghalaya government seeks to place such powers on statutory footing, it is doing so without the safeguards and oversight applicable to surveillance activities under international human rights law. Government hacking specifically interferes with human rights and other international documents. The UDHR was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948 and has received broad support from governments around the globe.
Article 12 states that “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, or to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to protection of the law against such interference or attacks” which means that all government hacking that facilitates access to “Protected Information” interferes with the right to privacy.
Protected Information is “information that includes, reflects, arises from, or is about a person’s communications and that is not readily available and easily accessible to the general public.” This includes private information and public information that is aggregated or analysed in a way that elucidates on non-public information. While only one of the categories of government hacking we identify occurs specifically to facilitate surveillance, nearly all government hacking facilitates or provides access to the Protected Information of a target. As such, the right to privacy is perhaps the right most directly interfered with by government hacking.
Recent disclosures by Joseph M. Kharkongor through the pages of news outlets have got people thinking; and questioning too! As ordinary citizens, should we be concerned about the Meghalaya Police hacking us for unnecessary surveillance? And does the judiciary know about the MLP’s unethical/unlawful digital surveillance techniques? If not, then it ought to!
Annie P. Marwein
Jaiaw Laitdom, Shillong
