The Right to Privacy in the Age of Algorithmic Surveillance:  Is Puttaswamy Future-Proof?

Malay Kumar Behera; GUNNAM BHASKAR RAO

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i05.87925

The Right to Privacy in the Age of Algorithmic Surveillance: Is Puttaswamy Future-Proof?

Author(s)	Dr. Malay Kumar Behera, Mr. GUNNAM BHASKAR RAO
Country	India
Abstract	The proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI), facial recognition, predictive analytics, biometric identification, and automated profiling is fundamentally transforming the nature of State surveillance. In India, the constitutional right to privacy is principally grounded in the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India (2017), which recognised privacy as a fundamental right intrinsic to dignity, autonomy, liberty, and informational self-determination. This article examines whether the constitutional framework developed in Puttaswamy remains adequate in an environment where surveillance is increasingly automated, predictive, pervasive, and capable of generating information through algorithmic inference. Using a doctrinal and comparative legal methodology, the article examines Puttaswamy, K.S. Puttaswamy (Aadhaar-5J.) v. Union of India (2019), Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India (1978), Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India (2020), the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, and contemporary scholarship on algorithmic governance and surveillance. The article argues that Puttaswamy is normatively future-proof but operationally incomplete. Its principles of legality, legitimate State purpose, necessity, proportionality, and procedural safeguards provide a durable constitutional foundation. However, AI-enabled surveillance introduces distinctive challenges involving metadata, inferential privacy, mass profiling, algorithmic bias, opacity, function creep, and automated decision-making. The article consequently proposes an expanded Puttaswamy framework incorporating algorithmic impact assessments, independent auditing, meaningful transparency, human oversight, equality-based review, strict purpose limitation, and effective remedies. It concludes that Puttaswamy should not be replaced but constitutionally developed into the foundation of an Indian framework of algorithmic constitutionalism.
Keywords	Right to Privacy, Puttaswamy, Algorithmic Surveillance, Artificial Intelligence, Informational Privacy, Article 21, Proportionality, Facial Recognition, Algorithmic Governance, India.
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 5, September-October 2026
Published On	2026-09-20
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i05.87925

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The Right to Privacy in the Age of Algorithmic Surveillance: Is Puttaswamy Future-Proof?

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