Human society survives on pretenses, on keeping up the appearances. Both of these rely on privacy, on being able to hide something from your counterpart in an interaction, sometimes the world at large. We cover our body, cover our odors and cover our thoughts, all to maintain privacy and keep up the appearances. Children find it bewildering when we badmouth guests after having shown great bonhomie during their presence. Only as adults do they realize that the first is important for sustaining the fabric of the society and the power relationships therein and the subsequent frank expressions just underscore the intimate relationship between parents and children that doesn't demand much privacy.
The level of privacy and pretenses required between two individuals or two groups of individuals or an individual and a group, is directly proportional to the Power Potential (PP,) The power potential is the difference between power wielded by the two entities in the society or in the transaction at hand. Need for privacy and pretenses diminishes to the extent the relationship is based on love and not power. And the reverse is equally true.
This is underscored by an incident in Ram Katha. When Ram and Lakshman were wandering through the forest looking for Sita, Sugriva was scared to see them coming. He sent Hanuman as an emissary. Hanuman disguised himself as a Brahmin, for he too was not sure of who these two prince like youth were. Once Hanuman learns of their identity, he feels an immense love towards the Lord and that makes him appear in his natural form and the disguise falls off! "अस कहि परेउ चरन अकुलाई। निज तनु प्रगटि प्रीति उर छाई॥"
This being the case, we will agree that the highest PP is to be found in the interactions between the government and a common citizen. Governments adopt a loving attitude towards their subjects in mass communications and advertisements just to distract them from the real dire nature of the relationship.
All status symbols and symbols of authority, be it the dress / uniform worn by you, or the position held by you, or the size of the office occupied by you, automatically bring the guards up in a counterparty that finds the PP high. The spontaneity is gone and all interactions are carefully guarded. This helps the weaker party avoids a confrontation and consequent damage. But it also becomes a handicap for the person with higher PP as he is not able to gauge his subjects' true feelings. This is a big handicap for a leader in a democratic setup. For that matter, even monarchs are afraid of a revolt by disgruntled subjects.
Hence the need for intelligence units that can gauge the mood of the public and inform the elected leader or the monarch. The agents from the Intelligence unit do so by disguising themselves or planting moles to participate in group conversations as a peer keeping PP zero. (Though it may be noted that human intelligence agencies are not really infallible as was seen in the fabled case of Indira Gandhi ordering elections on the basis of intelligence reports.)
If this intelligence gathering becomes more granular and invasive, it can lead to an Orwellian situation, but is less of a personal threat if only metadata is collected. The metadata still gives the rulers the political picture to help them influence the voters through (mis)communication or even coercion. Coercion was visible in the last Parliamentary elections when losing parties that had a hold on the local bodies made citizens suffer for water or other necessities as a punishment.
With the great strides in the world of computing, more reliable intelligence through Big Data and Artificial Intelligence is becoming a reality that can take over the intelligence functions from a human team. Technology has already taken over many jobs and is now poised to take over the intelligence job too, at least for that section of the public that actively vents its thoughts and feelings on social media. With the powerful computing tools available today it is possible to generate a statistical geographical political profile of the populace or even track down individuals harboring certain political inclinations. All that you need is access to the content created by the surveyed populace on the social media, by hook or by crook and a powerful AI engine to recognize the patterns. This, of course, leaves out the not so small numbers who do not have access to or do not use social media. This also explains why the opinion of the middle class can be molded rather easily in this manner and the reason for rushing to the likes of Cambridge Analytica.
Further, what Cambridge Analytica is doing to your posts to distill information about psyche and political inclinations, Aadhaar is attempting to do to your financial data by getting itself embedded in all your accounts and financial statements. The complexity of tax regulations adds to a citizen's worries about such massive invasion of his financial data. If BTT (click here to read) were implemented, ordinary citizens will not feel so threatened by this invasion for tax compliance will be automatic. Keeping your laws complex and then snooping on the subjects is a sure way to threaten, torment and manipulate them.
And hence, it is no surprise that an ordinary citizen feels very threatened with the current developements. This is why privacy has to be taken seriously. Though, those like Nirav Modi, who feel that the PP is not too high, may not feel threatened by the system at all. They even dare to threaten back. Perhaps they have information on the ruling class that comes handy to them.
It is interesting to note that even governments with all their power need privacy from their citizens. They achieve this through an Official Secrecy Act. And not all guarded information relates to external threats. And this is the reason that while citizens need privacy for them, they would like to weaken the privacy enjoyed by the Government, through tools like RTI.
Privacy is the cushion that powerless citizens have against all powerful governments. If it is violated, the power wielded by the government goes up further and impacts are much harder on a targeted citizens. It can lead to an Orwellian society.
A common citizen having little powers and limited means of exercising them therefore needs twofold protection. One is right to privacy (from government) and right to information (to dilute the power added by the govt through Official Secrets.)
It is time we learnt from Europe and enacted Privacy Laws and strengthened RTI framework in India.
The level of privacy and pretenses required between two individuals or two groups of individuals or an individual and a group, is directly proportional to the Power Potential (PP,) The power potential is the difference between power wielded by the two entities in the society or in the transaction at hand. Need for privacy and pretenses diminishes to the extent the relationship is based on love and not power. And the reverse is equally true.
This is underscored by an incident in Ram Katha. When Ram and Lakshman were wandering through the forest looking for Sita, Sugriva was scared to see them coming. He sent Hanuman as an emissary. Hanuman disguised himself as a Brahmin, for he too was not sure of who these two prince like youth were. Once Hanuman learns of their identity, he feels an immense love towards the Lord and that makes him appear in his natural form and the disguise falls off! "अस कहि परेउ चरन अकुलाई। निज तनु प्रगटि प्रीति उर छाई॥"
This being the case, we will agree that the highest PP is to be found in the interactions between the government and a common citizen. Governments adopt a loving attitude towards their subjects in mass communications and advertisements just to distract them from the real dire nature of the relationship.
All status symbols and symbols of authority, be it the dress / uniform worn by you, or the position held by you, or the size of the office occupied by you, automatically bring the guards up in a counterparty that finds the PP high. The spontaneity is gone and all interactions are carefully guarded. This helps the weaker party avoids a confrontation and consequent damage. But it also becomes a handicap for the person with higher PP as he is not able to gauge his subjects' true feelings. This is a big handicap for a leader in a democratic setup. For that matter, even monarchs are afraid of a revolt by disgruntled subjects.
Hence the need for intelligence units that can gauge the mood of the public and inform the elected leader or the monarch. The agents from the Intelligence unit do so by disguising themselves or planting moles to participate in group conversations as a peer keeping PP zero. (Though it may be noted that human intelligence agencies are not really infallible as was seen in the fabled case of Indira Gandhi ordering elections on the basis of intelligence reports.)
If this intelligence gathering becomes more granular and invasive, it can lead to an Orwellian situation, but is less of a personal threat if only metadata is collected. The metadata still gives the rulers the political picture to help them influence the voters through (mis)communication or even coercion. Coercion was visible in the last Parliamentary elections when losing parties that had a hold on the local bodies made citizens suffer for water or other necessities as a punishment.
With the great strides in the world of computing, more reliable intelligence through Big Data and Artificial Intelligence is becoming a reality that can take over the intelligence functions from a human team. Technology has already taken over many jobs and is now poised to take over the intelligence job too, at least for that section of the public that actively vents its thoughts and feelings on social media. With the powerful computing tools available today it is possible to generate a statistical geographical political profile of the populace or even track down individuals harboring certain political inclinations. All that you need is access to the content created by the surveyed populace on the social media, by hook or by crook and a powerful AI engine to recognize the patterns. This, of course, leaves out the not so small numbers who do not have access to or do not use social media. This also explains why the opinion of the middle class can be molded rather easily in this manner and the reason for rushing to the likes of Cambridge Analytica.
Further, what Cambridge Analytica is doing to your posts to distill information about psyche and political inclinations, Aadhaar is attempting to do to your financial data by getting itself embedded in all your accounts and financial statements. The complexity of tax regulations adds to a citizen's worries about such massive invasion of his financial data. If BTT (click here to read) were implemented, ordinary citizens will not feel so threatened by this invasion for tax compliance will be automatic. Keeping your laws complex and then snooping on the subjects is a sure way to threaten, torment and manipulate them.
And hence, it is no surprise that an ordinary citizen feels very threatened with the current developements. This is why privacy has to be taken seriously. Though, those like Nirav Modi, who feel that the PP is not too high, may not feel threatened by the system at all. They even dare to threaten back. Perhaps they have information on the ruling class that comes handy to them.
It is interesting to note that even governments with all their power need privacy from their citizens. They achieve this through an Official Secrecy Act. And not all guarded information relates to external threats. And this is the reason that while citizens need privacy for them, they would like to weaken the privacy enjoyed by the Government, through tools like RTI.
Privacy is the cushion that powerless citizens have against all powerful governments. If it is violated, the power wielded by the government goes up further and impacts are much harder on a targeted citizens. It can lead to an Orwellian society.
A common citizen having little powers and limited means of exercising them therefore needs twofold protection. One is right to privacy (from government) and right to information (to dilute the power added by the govt through Official Secrets.)
It is time we learnt from Europe and enacted Privacy Laws and strengthened RTI framework in India.
