Citizens welcome in fight against corruption but breach of privacy looms

NEW DELHI: Arvind Kejriwal may have taken a cue from a Central Vigilance Commission ( CVC) endeavor to ask citizens to do sting operations on the corrupt, even as a report on a draft privacy law in 2012 said such operations by citizens using mobile phones may violate individual privacy.

The CVC in 2010 had launched a new initiative named ‘Vigeye’ to enable citizens to do their own sting operations using their mobile phones by recording audio or visual evidence of the demand for bribes and then upload the video or audio directly from their phone to the CVC using an application.

The CVC, which called this a “citizen-centric initiative to enhance the citizen’s ambit to check on corruption in a big way”, then promised to investigate the complaint and act against the corrupt. Former CBI Director DR Karthikeyan said Kejriwal’s was a welcome move. “Tapping the common man to catch the corrupt is the right thing that Kejriwal is focusing upon. If citizens will be empowered, this will be a big step-up in fight against corruption,” Karthikeyan said.

However, there are concerns that the said move could lead to black-mailing of government officials. A Home Ministry official said it also raises privacy issues as a non-government body would be involved in doing audio or video recordings on the sly. A report in 2012 by former High Court Justice AP Shah on the Draft Privacy law said use of mobile cameras or recording devices for sting operations, without comprehensive privacy safeguards in place, can violate individual privacy.

“Currently in India the use of audio and video recording devices is unregulated… The Right to Privacy Bill in 2010 proposed to prohibit the use of cellular phones with built in cameras unless the camera produces a sound of at least 65 decibels and flash a light,” the report said. The Bill was not approved by Parliament.