Over the past decade, the Centre for Law and Policy Research (CLPR) has been deeply engaged with questions at the intersection of law, technology, and governance. Through academic research, policy analysis, and public writing, we have sought to shape conversations on the constitutional right to privacy, using the frame of information regulation — a term we felt captured a broad range of issues at the heart of contemporary debates, including big data, privacy, surveillance, and artificial intelligence.
Yet, as CLPR Managing Trustee Prof. Sudhir Krishnaswamy reflected during our recent panel discussion, these forms of intervention, while necessary, often “travel well up to a point and then run up against blocks.” Reports, academic papers, and op-eds have their audience — but they do not always reach those who may have little academic interest, yet whose lives will nonetheless be shaped by developments in digital privacy and the rapid emergence of AI.
Why a Comic Strip?
With The Score Keeper, we set out to explore more engaging and accessible modes of facilitating public engagement on digital privacy. Our goal was to create a format that could reach a much wider audience, especially those who are not academic specialists or policy makers, and to communicate the stakes of privacy in a way that feels relatable and urgent.
The comic imagines what a citizenship score system might look like in India’s digital welfare state — a system where entitlements and benefits are closely tied to the collection and use of personal data. It draws on familiar realities: the growing integration of state services and technology, the quiet accumulation of personal information, and the subtle ways in which these processes can reshape our freedoms.
As our panelists observed, privacy is often seen as a matter of “big” decisions. In practice, however, it is the countless small, routine exchanges of data — made without much thought — that compound into something far more powerful and potentially harmful. By telling this story through characters and narrative rather than legal or technical language, The Score Keeper invites readers to see how those seemingly minor choices add up.
You can read the comic here: The Score-Keeper
Production Team
The Score Keeper was produced with the support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. The visual design and scripting were led by Preetham and the team at Studio Sideline in close collaboration with CLPR’s research team, with final visual edits by Ananya Patel. At CLPR, the project was managed by Prof. Sudhir Krishnaswamy, with contributions from researchers Kalyani Menon, Varsha Nair, Mansi, Anish Saha, Jai Brunner, Saumya Singh, and Vineeth Krishna.
The Panel Discussion
To mark the release of the comic, CLPR hosted The Present and Future of Digital Privacy in India, featuring Astha Kapoor (Co-Founder, Aapti Institute) and Dr. Urvashi Aneja (Founder and Executive Director, Digital Futures Lab), moderated by Prof. Sudhir Krishnaswamy.
The discussion explored:
- The shifting focus from privacy to AI — and why privacy must remain a priority.
- The Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP), 2023 — its consent-based model, significant gaps, and continued scope for extensive data use by both state and private actors.
- Cyber fraud and scams — as a new inflection point for public awareness of privacy harms.
- Rethinking privacy — from an individual right (“I have nothing to hide”) to a social good that shapes collective norms.
- Collective action models — such as data cooperatives and stewardship frameworks, which could empower communities to negotiate how their data is used.
Both speakers stressed that India’s digital future must be built through meaningful public engagement, alternative governance models, and an honest reckoning with the hidden trade-offs behind technological convenience.
An audio podcast of the conversation can be accessed here:
We encourage you to explore the comic and watch or listen to the panel discussion. We trust you will find these resources useful, and we look forward to your feedback.
Please write to vineeth.krishna@clpr.org.in.
