In which case did a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court hold that privacy is a fundamental right?

K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017)

Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015)

Indra Sawhney v. Union of India (1992)

K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017)

Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India (2020)

Which of the following correctly describe levels of the digital divide? Select all that apply.

Second level: skills and patterns of use

Third level: outcomes and benefits from use

First level: physical access to devices and connectivity

Second level: skills and patterns of use

Third level: outcomes and benefits from use

First level: physical access to devices and connectivity

Fourth level: the colour of the device

Ivan Illich's concept of 'iatrogenesis' refers to:

Harm caused by medicine and the medical system itself

Assertion (A): In Shreya Singhal (2015) the Supreme Court struck down Section 66A of the IT Act. Reason (R): The Court found its terms, such as 'grossly offensive' and 'causing annoyance', vague and an unreasonable restriction on free speech. Choose the correct option.

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A

Madianou and Miller's concept of 'polymedia' describes:

An environment of multiple communication channels from which people, such as transnational families, choose to manage relationships

Government control of all media

The ownership of many media outlets by one company

The use of several languages in one newspaper

An environment of multiple communication channels from which people, such as transnational families, choose to manage relationships

Which of the following is NOT correctly matched?

Ivan Illich — Sweetness and Power

Jack Goody — Cooking, Cuisine and Class

Gilles Deleuze's 'societies of control' differ from Foucault's disciplinary societies mainly because in them:

Power works through continuous monitoring by codes and data rather than confinement in institutions

The sovereign rules through public spectacle

Power works through continuous monitoring by codes and data rather than confinement in institutions

Power operates only through physical punishment

There is no surveillance at all

Science, Technology and Society II: E-Governance and Surveillance, Technology and Politics, the Digital Divide, Family, Health, Food and Cyber Crime

This chapter takes the remaining seven items of Unit 9: e-governance and surveillance society; technology and emerging political processes; state policy, digital divide and inclusion; technology and changing family relations; technology and changing health systems; food and technology; and cyber crime. Each asks how digital and other technologies are redistributing power — between citizens and the state, among social groups with unequal access, within families, and between patients, doctors and platforms — and what new harms they make possible.

1. E-governance and surveillance society

E-governance promises faster, more transparent service delivery and less petty corruption. India's Digital India programme (2015), the Aadhaar biometric identity number (issued by the UIDAI from 2010, given statutory basis by the Aadhaar Act, 2016) and direct benefit transfers rebuilt welfare delivery around digital identity. Sociologists note the trade-offs: authentication failures can exclude the poorest from rations and pensions, and the same databases that deliver benefits also enable tracking. David Lyon (The Electronic Eye, 1994) described a 'surveillance society' in which routine monitoring by states and corporations is built into everyday life. Foucault's panopticon — the few watching the many — has been supplemented by Thomas Mathiesen's 'synopticon' (1997), in which the many watch the few through mass media, and by Gilles Deleuze's 'societies of control' (1992), where power works through continuous digital modulation rather than enclosed institutions. In K.S. Puttaswamy (2017) a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court held privacy to be a fundamental right, and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 set out a data-protection regime.

🧠 Panopticon, synopticon, control

Panopticon (Bentham, Foucault): the few watch the many. Synopticon (Mathiesen): the many watch the few. Societies of control (Deleuze): power follows people everywhere through codes and data, not walls. Surveillance society (Lyon) and surveillance capitalism (Zuboff) extend these to states and corporations.

2. Technology and emerging political processes; state policy, digital divide and inclusion

Digital media have changed how politics is organised. The Arab uprisings of 2010–11 and movements such as Occupy were studied by Castells (Networks of Outrage and Hope, 2012) as networked movements that move between online spaces and occupied public squares. Election campaigns now rely on social media, data analytics and messaging networks run by party 'IT cells'. Critics warn of 'slacktivism' — low-cost online gestures replacing sustained action — and Evgeny Morozov (The Net Delusion, 2011) argued that authoritarian states use the same tools for propaganda and surveillance. States also restrict access: India has recorded a large number of regional internet shutdowns, and in Anuradha Bhasin (2020) the Supreme Court held that freedom of expression through the internet is constitutionally protected and that restrictions must be necessary and proportionate.

Level of the digital divide	What is unequal	Indian illustration
First level	Physical access to devices and connectivity	Rural-urban and regional gaps in broadband; BharatNet aims to connect gram panchayats
Second level (Eszter Hargittai, 2002)	Skills and patterns of use	Digital literacy programmes such as PMGDISHA (2017); women often use shared, family-controlled phones
Third level	Outcomes — who actually benefits in income, education or health	Online schooling during the Covid-19 closures widened learning gaps between richer and poorer children

3. Technology and changing family relations, health systems and food

Family relations: Mirca Madianou and Daniel Miller (Migration and New Media, 2012) introduced 'polymedia' — the environment of multiple communication channels from which transnational families choose to express care and manage conflict, as in 'remote mothering' by migrant women. Mobile phones have given young people and women new spaces of autonomy and romance, but also new tools of parental and spousal surveillance; matrimonial websites and apps have changed how marriages are arranged without dissolving caste and community filters.
Health systems: Ivan Illich's Medical Nemesis (1975) warned of iatrogenesis — clinical, social and cultural harm caused by medicine itself — and critics describe the medicalisation of more areas of life (childbirth, ageing, unhappiness). Digital health is reshaping delivery: the eSanjeevani telemedicine service, the Co-WIN vaccination platform and the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (2021) with health IDs. These widen access but raise concerns about data privacy and the exclusion of those without devices or digital skills.
Food and technology: Sidney Mintz's Sweetness and Power (1985) traced how sugar, produced by slave labour on Caribbean plantations, became a cheap source of calories for the English industrial working class — food as a window on colonialism and capitalism. Jack Goody (Cooking, Cuisine and Class, 1982) linked differentiated cuisines to stratified societies, and Appadurai ('How to Make a National Cuisine', 1988) showed cookbooks constructing an Indian national cuisine. Today industrial processing, packaged foods, genetically modified crops, cold chains and food-delivery platforms reshape diets, while digitised public distribution under the National Food Security Act (2013) links food to e-governance.

4. Cyber crime

Cyber crime includes offences against computer systems (hacking, ransomware), offences using them (phishing, identity theft, online financial fraud) and content-related harms (cyberstalking, cyberbullying, sextortion, non-consensual intimate images, child sexual abuse material and, increasingly, deepfakes). Sociologists stress its social patterning: fraud targets the elderly and new users drawn online by digital payments, and online harassment falls disproportionately on women, Dalits and minorities, silencing them in digital public spaces. India's Information Technology Act, 2000 (amended 2008) is the core law; in Shreya Singhal (2015) the Supreme Court struck down its Section 66A, which criminalised 'offensive' online messages, as vague and a violation of free speech. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre coordinates enforcement, with a national reporting portal and the 1930 helpline for financial fraud.

🎯 Why cyber crime is a sociological, not only technical, topic

Most successful cyber crime exploits social trust rather than technical weakness — 'social engineering' through fake officials, relatives in distress or romance. Its victims, perpetrators and policing reflect existing inequalities of age, gender, literacy and region, which is why the syllabus places it beside the digital divide and surveillance.

Key takeaways

E-governance through Digital India, Aadhaar and direct benefit transfers improves delivery but risks exclusion and surveillance; Lyon's surveillance society, Mathiesen's synopticon and Deleuze's societies of control extend Foucault's panopticon.
Puttaswamy (2017) made privacy a fundamental right; Anuradha Bhasin (2020) required internet restrictions to be proportionate; Castells studied networked movements while Morozov warned of authoritarian uses.
The digital divide operates at three levels — access, skills and outcomes — and follows lines of region, class and gender.
Polymedia reshapes transnational family care; Illich's iatrogenesis and medicalisation frame health technology; Mintz's sugar, Goody's cuisine and Appadurai's cookbooks frame food and technology.
Cyber crime exploits social trust and falls unequally; the IT Act, 2000 governs it, and Shreya Singhal (2015) struck down Section 66A.

Practice questions (10)

Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.

Thomas Mathiesen's concept of the 'synopticon' refers to a situation in which:
1. The many watch the few through mass media
2. Prisoners watch the guards
3. No one watches anyone
4. The few watch the many
Show answer
Answer: A — The many watch the few through mass media
Mathiesen (1997) argued that alongside panoptic surveillance, modern mass media let the many watch the few — celebrities and elites — which also disciplines viewers' desires and norms.
In which case did a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court hold that privacy is a fundamental right?
1. Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015)
2. Indra Sawhney v. Union of India (1992)
3. K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017)
4. Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India (2020)
Show answer
Answer: C — K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017)
Puttaswamy (2017) recognised privacy as intrinsic to life and liberty under Article 21. Shreya Singhal struck down Section 66A; Anuradha Bhasin concerned internet shutdowns; Indra Sawhney concerned OBC reservation.
Which of the following correctly describe levels of the digital divide? Select all that apply.
1. Second level: skills and patterns of use
2. Third level: outcomes and benefits from use
3. First level: physical access to devices and connectivity
4. Fourth level: the colour of the device
Show answer
Answer: A — Second level: skills and patterns of use; B — Third level: outcomes and benefits from use; C — First level: physical access to devices and connectivity
Research moved from access (first level) to skills and use (second level, Hargittai 2002) to tangible outcomes (third level). The option about the device's colour is a distractor with no basis in the literature.
Ivan Illich's concept of 'iatrogenesis' refers to:
1. The genetic origin of disease
2. Harm caused by medicine and the medical system itself
3. The spread of telemedicine
4. Traditional healing practices
Show answer
Answer: B — Harm caused by medicine and the medical system itself
In Medical Nemesis (1975) Illich distinguished clinical iatrogenesis (side-effects and errors), social iatrogenesis (dependence on medical institutions) and cultural iatrogenesis (loss of people's capacity to cope with pain and death).
Sidney Mintz's Sweetness and Power uses the history of which commodity to study colonialism and industrial capitalism?
1. Tea
2. Sugar
3. Cotton
4. Rice
Show answer
Answer: B — Sugar
Mintz (1985) traced sugar from slave plantations in the Caribbean to the diet of English industrial workers, showing how a luxury became a cheap staple within global capitalism.
Assertion (A): In Shreya Singhal (2015) the Supreme Court struck down Section 66A of the IT Act. Reason (R): The Court found its terms, such as 'grossly offensive' and 'causing annoyance', vague and an unreasonable restriction on free speech. Choose the correct option.
1. Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
2. Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
3. A is true, but R is false
4. A is false, but R is true
Show answer
Answer: A — Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
The judgment turned precisely on the vagueness and overbreadth of Section 66A's terms, which chilled legitimate speech and could not be saved as reasonable restrictions under Article 19(2).
Madianou and Miller's concept of 'polymedia' describes:
1. Government control of all media
2. The ownership of many media outlets by one company
3. The use of several languages in one newspaper
4. An environment of multiple communication channels from which people, such as transnational families, choose to manage relationships
Show answer
Answer: D — An environment of multiple communication channels from which people, such as transnational families, choose to manage relationships
In Migration and New Media (2012), polymedia describes how, once cost is no longer the main constraint, the choice of channel — a call, a message, a video — itself carries emotional and moral meaning in relationships.
What is the national helpline number in India for reporting online financial fraud? (Enter the number)
Numerical answer — type the value.
Show answer
Answer: 1930
The 1930 helpline, run under the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, allows quick reporting so that fraudulent transfers can be frozen; complaints can also be filed on the national cyber crime reporting portal.
Which of the following is NOT correctly matched?
1. David Lyon — The Electronic Eye
2. Evgeny Morozov — The Net Delusion
3. Ivan Illich — Sweetness and Power
4. Jack Goody — Cooking, Cuisine and Class
Show answer
Answer: C — Ivan Illich — Sweetness and Power
Sweetness and Power (1985) is Sidney Mintz's. Illich wrote Medical Nemesis (and Deschooling Society).
Gilles Deleuze's 'societies of control' differ from Foucault's disciplinary societies mainly because in them:
1. The sovereign rules through public spectacle
2. Power works through continuous monitoring by codes and data rather than confinement in institutions
3. Power operates only through physical punishment
4. There is no surveillance at all
Show answer
Answer: B — Power works through continuous monitoring by codes and data rather than confinement in institutions
In 'Postscript on the Societies of Control' (1992) Deleuze argued that the enclosed institutions of discipline (school, factory, prison) give way to open, continuous modulation through passwords, data and credit — a precursor of digital surveillance studies.