“Right to Know” Vs “Right to Privacy”

There is enough written, discussed and debated on the Wikileaks in every possible forum. I am no pundit to comment on the implications no more than what is already been done to death. But the development over the last couple of days on handling the leaks is something that requires attention.

Everyone is gunning for Assange’s head, typical reaction we see from our politicians and bureaucrats, to bring an end to this leak menace. Servers were traced and shunted out, Interpol notices were issued against the Wikileak founder; so in essence, there is a massive hunt for human and physical infrastructure that helped created these leaks. Is shutting down the servers or finding Assange going to solve the problem? What if Assange is murdered tomorrow? Is anything going to change? I have my sincere doubts.

I think it is a classic case of missing woods for the trees.

The fundamental is – Wikileak has shown that technology exist to allow individuals to leak data while maintaining anonymity. With or without Assange, this model can survive. Assange has planted an idea – to enable anonymous leaking and make information public.

Technology made it easier for the Government and their agencies to snoop around the lives of individuals; the reverse is what we are seeing now. Individuals, alone or working together are snooping around the offices of the government. So, going forward government’s functioning should take into account the “secret-keeping” strategy as part of its functioning. From now on, this is going to be the situation that the government has to live-with.

Basic question is – Can such leaks be prevented? Yes. Those with the permission to access the sensitive materials refuse to divulge any information, this can be prevented. But this is highly unlikely. As long as individuals have their own moral and social sense – these leaks and scandals will continue.

To cap such leaks, the Government might lay severe restrictions on the flow of information and restrict few people to the sensitive data and information. This will constrain the information sharing between different governments agencies for the fear of leaks. This can hamper the normal functioning of the government.

There is always going to be a dilemma when "right to know" starts interfering with the “right to privacy”. For instance, medical records or transcripts of individuals are under the ambit of “right to privacy”. What if an individual is having some ailments is also the ‘Head of State’? Should this information get reported? That is where the challenge comes as to how are we going to interpret the data and information.If we have to stop any such leaks, our debate should be centered around things that determine leaks and not on the leaks.