Bridging the Transparency Gap

Government surveillance efforts in India and the United States are increasingly becoming intertwined and are consistently relying on user data collected from technology companies, according to a new report published by the Esya Centre, a New Delhi-based think tank, in collaboration with New America’s Open Technology Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

The report, Bridging the Transparency Gap, makes a comparative assessment of surveillance-related transparency efforts in the United States and India.

The report argues, over the past decade, government surveillance efforts in the United States and India have increasingly come to rely on user data collected by technology and telecommunications companies. Additionally, the surveillance apparatuses of both countries are becoming more intertwined, especially as the two nations explore bilateral partnerships in the technology space.

In the report, authors Spandana Singh and Meghna Bal argue that the two governments and companies within their respective countries must work to provide adequate transparency around ongoing surveillance operations, along with how they implicate user data. Meaningful transparency in this regard can augment accountability and inform ongoing dialogues around appropriate surveillance safeguards as well as bilateral partnerships.

For greater transparency and accountability on surveillance efforts, the report calls on governments and corporations to provide more clarity around collection of user data andto publish more granular data on surveillance-related requests. To the governments, it also recommends instituting legal provisions to safeguard user privacy rights. A more detailed list of recommendations can be found in the report.