Both "Privacy" and "transparency" under makeover in modern era. Privacy and transparency are two ends of the same continuum. the more you have of one ,the less you have of the another.Privacy is in personal interest and Transparency is in Public interest. This the very reason That the laws of Privacy have exception for the public interest. If the public interest are undermined ,then individual privacy can be infringed upon.Similarly, in Transparency laws , infringement of the Individual privacy is not required unless it is in Public interest.
Transparency is required to have a check on the power,the state and the government.Privacy protections must be inversely proportionate to power and, as Julian Assange says, transparency requirements should be directly proportionate to power. There is not meaning and large public interest to share private information of the powerless.But there is not international laws of transparency in the era of Democratic and Digital governance. This is like the whole system at Global top is hijacked by powerful elite in their interest. Recently Snowden exposed the Huge surveillance project of US named "Prism". This is blatant attack on Right of Privacy by institutionalized powerful means of technology.
What we need privacy or Transparency is not our debate. We need both in appropriate context. In the era of explosive new technology like GPS,Biometric, Smart Phone, Internet Use Tracking, it seems privacy have no role and outrightly denied and transparency is new mantra but it is not so. Privacy is basic need of Human psyche. It is necessary for personal liberty,freedom and hapiness. definitely it has some limits till the public interest are not harmed. Similarly transparency have its own role in public domain.
Transparency is denied by various means particularly in developing country where democracy is not so mature and Civil society is less organized. Information is the currency of democracy. For this currency RTI activists are paying heavy toll of their life in country like India.Many government have long history and culture of secrecy.their infrastucture and functioning is opposed to openness. the cost of availing information is very high which frustrate the efforts of information seeker. For governmental transparency ,information should be understandable and of quality so that citizens can make informed decisions.They can have meaningful oversight and valuable inputs about public official. Understandable means places in context and quality means complete , accurate and timely.So can there be a alternative model of access to information and for open and transparent system.
Data activists can provide a viable alternative model for transparency by not challenging power hierarchies. Data activists work where the information is available at bottom of the power pyramid and obsessed with tools and technologies rather power asymmetries and injustices. This obsession and avoidance protect them from threat of power. Like bringing to public the wrong balance sheets,false identity and poor plans from easily available online data is job of data activist. he do not go against to avail and get answer of his question. On the other hand digitization of information reduced the cost of data access. Through biometric attendance system for all bureaucrats make them punctual. Corruption is not exclusive from not being punctual.But the same biometric when issued to public in the name of AAdhar. There is no public interest in infringing privacy of powerless . But the same biometric have huge public benefits if given to bureaucrats and politicians.
In the era of RTI act,2005 and Citizen charter and their further linkages to E-government and E-governance can provide a simplest and affordable way of realising informed society. the right to be informed is current demand of Democracy. this is the way of bypassing the evolving conflict between Administration and information seeker citizenry. In other words it is the effective way that allows us to use Privacy law and Transparency law of addressing the power asymmetries rather than exacerbating them.
Good effort on a tricky topic. But I felt conclusion is not correlating with arguments...anyway..thx for writing !
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