The Surveillance Pandemic

Where must we locate our right to privacy in times of a crisis? How much information about ourselves do we give up? Is spying on a neighbour justified in an attempt to contain the spread of a disease? In our ongoing conversations dealing with various aspects of surveillance, Shweta Reddy and Mira Swaminathan speak to Torsha Sarkar about the topical issue of balancing a public health objective with protection of our fundamental rights. They offer various privacy principles and ethical considerations that any initiative trying to institutionalize surveillance must take into account, with the goal of ensuring that short term solutions do not become the long term features of an organized society.