“INVISIBLE SURVEILLANCE: JEOPARDIZING MENTAL

HEALTH”

“SSS: RE-IMAGINING SURVEILLANCE”

Course Instructor: Prof. AKANSHA SINGH

Submitted by: Devarshi Ranjan

III Year, V Semester

2020-5 LLB-15

NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad

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 CONTENTS

ABSTRACT........................................................................................................3

1. INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................3

2. PRIVACY AND SURVEILLANCE...............................................................5

3. SURVEILLANCE’S CONSEQUENCES ON MENTAL HEALTH.............6

4. PSYCHOLOGY OF PRIVACY......................................................................8

5. NEED OF THE HOUR...................................................................................9

6. CONCLUSION.............................................................................................10

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 ABSTRACT
This essay examines the psychological effects of learning that there is technology out there
that is continually snooping on us and how it is hurting our mental health. This essay is
divided into four parts: part I discusses the relationship between privacy and surveillance,
part II examines the effects of surveillance on mental health in which I tried to touch upon the
idea that cyber violence is actually killing people and further creates the physical violence,
part III examines the psychology of privacy, and part IV discusses practical steps that can be
taken to improve the situation.

INTRODUCTION
Have you read Facebook's terms and conditions? Most people definitely haven't, and for good
reason. They run into hundreds of pages, if not thousands. Even well-established scholars
have had trouble attempting to comprehend these agreements in reality. However, each of us
is aware that by using these platforms and gadgets, we are giving up some of our personal
rights. Why do we do it, then? The value of privacy is not as high as we would like to think.

People are subject to mass surveillance in more ways than ever before in the modern world.
A trip through a city with sophisticated surveillance systems can result in hundreds of
unnoticed camera captures in a single day. Popular social networking platforms also reveal
various aspects of their users' lives to the world. These sites frequently acquire and distribute
very personal data. Social networking sites, like many other technologies, have advantages,
but it's crucial to evaluate how they affect privacy and how this could affect mental health.1

There are several instances where people admire any famous brand products and do some
random searches on the internet, the next thing they get to know is that the advertisement
related to those products starts budging them on almost every social media platform, and
even there are reported cases where people just talked to their friend about how some product
is quite expensive in a certain country and suddenly they get ads on amazon with a “UP TO
60% OFF” flashing in red, it seems like getting the gnawing feeling that one is living in the
episode of Black Mirror.2
1
What are the Effects of Invasion of Privacy - Mental Health, FHE HEALTH – ADDICTION & MENTAL HEALTH
CARE (2020), https://fherehab.com/learning/public-exposure-and-mental-health/ (last visited Nov 2, 2022).
2
The Swaddle & Saumya Kalia, What Is a Constant Lack of Digital Privacy Doing to Our Mental Health?, THE
SWADDLE (2022), https://theswaddle.com/what-is-a-constant-lack-of-digital-privacy-doing-to-our-mental-

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This is not an unusual encounter. Today's virtual advertisements faithfully represent a snippet
of everything that is being discussed in real life, where the platform, people, and the subject
of discussion are replaced. These linkages between data and our life are now the rule rather
than the exception. However, it might be unsettling to continuously be watched, followed,
and surveilled. Individuals who lack privacy experience a crisis of liberty or a sense of being
in charge. Being able to measure intelligent, sophisticated methods of tracking people and
their identities is like quantifying the atmosphere around us. Cookies are used by web
browsers to record snapshots of our online activity; businesses, governments, and banks
utilize this information for a variety of functions.

Namrata Khetan, a counseling psychologist says that a perpetual lack of privacy invades
people’s personal space and sense of security. This leads to hypervigilance, doubts, constant
fears, and paranoia in some cases. They converge into the larger inability to trust people,
surroundings, and things. A study from as early as 2011 found that surveillance is linked to
heightened stress, anxiety, and fatigue.3

Researchers from Finland examined the psychological effects of ongoing digital surveillance
in 2012. For personal computers, wireless networks, smartphones, TVs, and DVD players,
research subjects were offered video cameras, microphones, and logging software. At
intervals of six and twelve months, respectively, the participants were asked to describe their
levels of stress. In the end, 90% of them reported feeling annoyed, anxious, or even angry;
one household stopped using the equipment after six months because it was so
uncomfortable.4

health/ (last visited Nov 1, 2022).

3
Emina Subašić et al., Leadership, power and the use of surveillance: Implications of shared social identity for
leaders’ capacity to influence, 22 LEADERSH. Q. 170 (2011)..
4
Negative effects of computerized surveillance at home: Cause of annoyance, concern, anxiety, and even anger,
SCIENCEDAILY, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121008101646.htm (last visited Nov 4, 2022).

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 PRIVACY AND SURVEILLANCE
Usha Raman, a professor of media studies and digital culture at the University of Hyderabad
notes that invasion of privacy is normalized or socially sanctioned in the interest of
preserving culture, morals, or a community's honor, from males, forbidding elderly from
staring at women on the street to neighbors who have no problem spying on one another.

The thought of the government surveying its citizens doesn't irritate us it has become normal,
just as individuals tolerate what appears to be innocent surveillance from family members
and communities. The acceptance of physical surveillance by society influences the
acceptance of online privacy. On a personal level, the knowledge gaps surrounding personal
privacy have an impact on how (little) we consider it in a digital context. Collectively,
surveillance gets accepted on a national scale, turning it into a weak form of democracy.
These kinds of ideas seem similar to the paradoxes of modern society i.e., hyper
normalization, where everyone knows about the illusion of reality, but they just do want to
accept it. In the current digital world, whenever we download any application and give
permissions, we know we are compromising our privacy in the name of convenience and
efficiency, but we could not possibly imagine a viable alternative to the status quo, the reality
is even if you feel that you have nothing to hide from companies or government collecting
your data, that does not mean that you have nothing to lose.5

Although it is simple to look back in disbelief at the covert monitoring of historical

luminaries like Martin Luther King Jr. and Ernest Hemingway, even the average person now
has access to more data than was ever feasible in the past. Even when people express concern
about who has access to their data, many are unable to modify their habits due to the
normalization of mass surveillance. In order to heal from trauma and forge our own
identities, privacy is a fundamental psychological requirement. However, thanks to the
internet, everyone may access our deepest secrets. Public health should prioritize research on
how internet privacy abuses affect mental health.

Due to the power of interception granted by the Telegraph Act of 1885, surveillance has been
a technique utilized for law enforcement in India for a number of years. Instances that one
would often identify with a surveillance state, such the usage of facial recognition

5
Condé Nast, Internet Privacy—Or Lack Thereof—Is Quietly Affecting Your Mental Health, GLAMOUR (2021),
https://www.glamour.com/story/internet-privacy-affects-your-mental-health (last visited Nov 1, 2022).

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technologies, have increased more recently. It's critical to comprehend how privacy is seen
psychologically in light of the recent expansion of the privacy discourse. According to one
environmental psychologist, it is one's "control of access to oneself," whereas the Harvard
Law Review article on the "Right to Privacy" from 1890 defined it as "the right to be left
alone." It gives one the flexibility to evolve and change as a person.

SURVEILLANCE’S CONSEQUENCES ON MENTAL HEALTH

Global recognition of the significance of mental health has increased, particularly since it was
included in the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. The National Mental
Health Policy has given mental health some legal recognition, but this is still only a very
minor step in the direction of real advancement. The capacity to exercise "control of access to
self" and one's mental health are closely related. Because it brings a third party to the
forefront, surveillance interferes with one's ability to control their social interactions and their
own behavior. The social and psychological underpinnings of people are interfered with
when they can't regulate who has visual access to them or their surroundings, which can
result in paranoia.6

There are several examples where people are actually getting killed because of this cyber
violence, and in reality, this violence also doing physical violence. One example can be fraud
loan applications, Due to harassment by recovery agents of unregulated digital lending
platforms, typically connected organizations based in China, numerous Indians have taken
their own lives as a result. The misuse of customer personal data by fraudsters is a major
factor in the suicide rate in this case. When people provide their personal information online
to download a loan application, fraudsters gain access to information like contact lists,
photos, and videos saved in gallery folders on their mobile devices.

6
Dr Sasmit Patra, Surveillance a massive challenge for mental health, so India needs robust data protection
laws, THEPRINT (2020), https://theprint.in/theprint-valuead-initiative/surveillance-a-massive-challenge-for-
mental-health-so-india-needs-robust-data-protection-laws/512430/ (last visited Nov 2, 2022).

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This surveillance deteriorates relationships when you're being closely watched, any personal
relationship could end up being dangerous. People who are being observed always worry
about how they are regarded, whether it is through street cameras or social media monitoring,
which makes it challenging to have sincere connections with others.

The impact of surveillance is arguably far greater on low-income and minority groups.
Activists point out that in Hyderabad, the process of questioning citizens randomly and
checking their mobile phones was disproportionately applied to Dalits, Muslims, and poor
people. Some people have even drawn attention to the casteist, ethnic, and gender bias in tech
spying.7 Consider the "Sulli Deals" and "Bulli Bai" incidents, in which images of Muslim
women were captured and used as a form of targeted harassment by being put up for auction
on various platforms. These people also have a tougher time getting access to mental health
assistance.

Consider the psychological impact of just knowing that there is technology out there spying
on us and that it is the government that is using that technology in the name of fighting terror
and crime, the government bought this tech which is spyware from NSO but the statistics
show something else. In 2018, it was uncovered that numerous Indian lawyers and activists
had been the victim of a Pegasus attack through WhatsApp. In 2018, a report by the Citizen
Lab identified 45 countries where Pegasus was in use. According to the Pegasus Project,
It has been involved in the monitoring of 300 Indian phone lines, including those used by
prominent journalists and opposition figures like Rahul Gandhi.  Mass surveillance has a
direct negative impact on people's trust in the government because most people are against
the government spying on its own citizens. The possibility of being treated as a state
adversary doesn't sit well with people, even though it may be OK for suspected terrorists to
have their calls monitored, their faces watched, and their purchases recorded.

Walter Benjamin in his work Reflections talks about how the government was making sure
that the workers were getting opium so that they must never think about questioning the
authority8, similar to that idea when the government uses such kind of dangerous technology
on their people, it creates discomfort in them and they indulge in their own problem while
real questions that should be raised in a democracy take a back seat.
7
Aishwarya Jagani, In India, fears grow that facial recognition systems may be used to target minorities,
SCROLL.IN, https://scroll.in/article/1006615/in-india-fears-grow-that-facial-recognition-systems-may-used-to-
target-minorities (last visited Nov 4, 2022).
8

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A major advantage is feeling in charge of your personal life. Stress levels will only rise as
that control is reduced. People who are being watched can't afford the kinds of mistakes that
are minor in a private setting, especially if making them public would have serious
repercussions. Who is monitoring and willing to report you is unknown. The level of
uncertainty brought on by living under surveillance drives people to conform, which is
perhaps the most harmful effect of all. People who are being observed tend to be self-
confirming; it becomes dangerous to voice opposing views when it's uncertain whether you'll
be painted as a potential criminal (or worse) same as Kafka states in his parable before the
law where the countryman was confirming to everything said by doorkeeper and he also
accepted everything that doorkeeper said because he thought that repercussions might be
adverse. In general, people change their actions so they are not overly upsetting to the viewer,
which limits their ability to express themselves and can exacerbate the problems listed above.

These applications in which we unintentionally trade- off our privacy have only one
advantage it is accessible and inclusive to all but this is the tragedy of the modern age where
on one hand we have the desire for freedom and fundamental rights and on the other hand we
are constantly forgoing it for the sake of convenience and efficiency.

PSYCHOLOGY OF PRIVACY
As technology advances and personal photographs and information can be easily accessible
to others, often for an endless amount of time, the need for privacy continues to grow. A
more concerted focus on the psychological significance of privacy, as well as the
development of more advanced security measures, has resulted from efforts to control the
dissemination of such private information. The psychological foundations of privacy are a
significant aspect of it. Some people have described privacy as both a trait that makes a
person who they are and a state that can change based on the circumstances. Furthermore,
one can choose to limit their level of disclosure by internal or external controls.

However, in most circumstances, the decision to share personal information with others or
not rests with the individual. Unsurprisingly, bad personal information is frequently kept a
secret.9

9
Taylor, J. F., Ferguson, J., & Ellen, P. S. (2015). From trait to state: Understanding privacy concerns. Journal
of Consumer Marketing, 32/2, 99 –112. doi.org/10.1108/JCM-07-2014-1078

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Researchers have done an experiment of 12 months by placing “behavioral observation
systems” in 10 homes, in this experiment, they explored the long-term psychological
consequences of surveillance in homes. They did a study of the long-term effects of
ubiquitous surveillance in homes where ten volunteering households were instrumented with
video cameras with microphones, computers, wireless networks, smartphones, TV, and DVD.
In the earliest days, all the participants worried about the experience, after months of
observation, mostly all of them reported becoming accustomed to a lack of privacy and after
six months, all of them started showing signs of anxiety, stress, concerns, and specially
privacy-seeking behaviors such as hiding from the sensors, clearing histories so they cannot
be tracked.10

There is a counter to privacy that self-concealment can be maladaptive that the need for
connection with others might clash with the psychological need for protection from others,
which privacy can sometimes provide. The need for seclusion can have both benefits and
drawbacks. A lack of interpersonal relationships that encourage interaction with and
recognition by others might make someone feel worried. Disclosure does, however, come
with the possibility of feeling exposed and helpless.

Self-concealment can generally have detrimental physical and psychological implications,

such as anxiety and depression. According to a study, keeping one's thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors to oneself can be very difficult and can cause the body to experience physiological
stress.11

NEED OF THE HOUR

The unspoken agreement on data "privacy" is that we are all aware, at least subconsciously,
that our data is being collected, used, and sold, but we frequently accept this because we find
the systems to be valuable enough to outweigh the costs. 12 There are actions one can take to
offset the negative consequences of digital privacy invasions, from low-level everyday
anxiety to systemic injustices like discrimination and exploitation such as awareness, one

10
Antti Oulasvirta et al., Long-term effects of ubiquitous surveillance in the home, in PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2012
ACM CONFERENCE ON UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING 41 (2012), https://doi.org/10.1145/2370216.2370224 (last
visited Nov 4, 2022).
11
Ahmet Uysal, Helen Lee Lin & C. Raymond Knee, The role of need satisfaction in self-concealment and
well-being, 36 PERS. SOC. PSYCHOL. BULL. 187 (2010).
12
Neil Sahota, Privacy Is Dead And Most People Really Don’t Care, FORBES,
https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilsahota/2020/10/14/privacy-is-dead-and-most-people-really-dont-care/ (last
visited Oct 18, 2022).

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should personalize their settings on their device, should clean up their digital footprints over
the course of time. A data breach will only result in a greater sense of paranoia because one's
behavior will change as a result of constantly feeling watched and observed. People will feel
the need to constantly be on guard as a result, which is mentally draining. Because they result
in a person's confidence being betrayed and their vulnerabilities being revealed, data breaches
go beyond this call for caution. Up until one is personally impacted by increasing
surveillance, it is far simpler to convince oneself of its safety.

A strong privacy framework must be in place at all times to guarantee that the data processor
has limited access to the data and that it is gathered, kept, transferred, and disposed of in a
way that respects the rights of the individuals. While there are many privacy issues associated
with this type of data collection, there is also a very real invasion of one's liberty because
anyone can have access to one's personal information if they so want. Therefore, whether or
not such access is used becomes irrelevant because having the ability to do so makes people
feel more paranoid.

CONCLUSION
Legal and interpersonal situations both recognize the necessity for privacy. However, this
need is not universal and neither should it be. The relevance of the "right to be left alone" as
well as the "right to be known by others" remains a shifting balancing act as the globe
becomes a smaller and more personal place with the advent of technological development
and global communication and trade. The disequilibrium between the individual and big tech
is so vast that this can no longer be a private citizen’s battle, and we need legislation to help
us.13

There are laws in Indian jurisprudence that deal with surveillance, but it's crucial that the
topic is specifically covered in the data regime, such as the Personal Data Protection Bill or
the Non-Personal Data Framework. These steps would aid in regulating the different
surveillance techniques now in use and guarantee that they adhere to the guiding principles of
necessity, proportionality, and transparency. These guidelines are crucial for minimizing the
negative impacts of such technology on one's mental health as well as lowering the numerous
other risks connected to it.

13
Supra note 13 at 6.

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A structure like this will increase people's trust in the government and promote individual
participation in digital areas. It will strengthen democracy by promoting dissent in social
discourse, fostering creativity, and reducing conformity. Reduced anxiety over data breaches
or abuse of data by both public and private parties will lessen the need for constant
watchfulness and the negative consequences this has on one's mental health.

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