INDIVIDUALS RIGHT TO DIGITAL PRIVACY AND STATE SECURITY.docx

Journal of Human Rights Practice, 2017

Human Rights Council Twenty-seventh session Agenda items 2 and 3 Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development The right to privacy in the digital age Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Summary In its resolution 68/167, the General Assembly requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to submit a report on the protection and promotion of the right to privacy in the context of domestic and extraterritorial surveillance and/or the interception of digital communications and the collection of personal data, including on a mass scale, to the Human Rights Council at its twenty-seventh session and to the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth session, with views and recommendations, to be considered by Member States. The present report is submitted pursuant to that request. The Office of the High Commissioner will also submit the report to the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth session, pursuant to the request of the Assembly.

2017

The right to privacy in the digital age generates new challenges for the international jurisdiction. The following article deals with such challenges. Therefore it firstly defines the term of privacy in general and presents an international legal framework. With whisteblower Snowden a huge political discourse was initiated and the article gives insights into its further development. In 2015 the Human Rights Council for the first time announced a special rapporteur on the right to privacy. However, the discourse is not only taking place on a political level, also civil society organizations advocate more stringent regulations and prosecutions against violations of the right to privacy. Moreover the importance of the technology sector becomes clear. Companies like Microsoft are increasingly taking responsibility to protect digital media against unjustified data misuse, surveillance, collection and storage. But whereas the IT sector is developing very quickly, legislative processes do ...

This document seeks to ensure that Zimbabwe’s law and practice adhere to Zimbabwe’s Constitution as well as international standards and norms regarding the protection of privacy and free expression in the digital age. It is necessary to consider both national and international perspectives because although a specific right to privacy was introduced to the new Zimbabwean Constitution in 2013, its failure to expand upon all facets of privacy – including those relating to the interception, use and storage of digital and online communications – leaves the way clear for abuses in these areas. An examination of examples of international law and best practice can provide the basis for future amendments to the Constitution, as well as for legal reform within the country. This paper will first set out expectations and requirements relating to the right to privacy, as set out by international laws and the various international treaties and covenants to which Zimbabwe is party. It will then address difficulties that hinder the implementation of and adherence to these requirements. Finally, it will recommend steps that should to be taken to ensure that the rights to privacy and freedom of expression are protected as efficiently as possible.

Anali Pravnog fakulteta u Beogradu, 2014

It is evident that despite the Constitution’s acknowledgement of the importance of the protecting the right to privacy in Zimbabwe, at the time of writing citizens remain vulnerable to the possibility of extensive state monitoring of their online communications and Internet usage. This may be a result of the new Constitution only recently having been adopted. However, at present, this digital monitoring represents an expansion of the government’s ongoing monitoring of the activities of many segments of the population– monitoring that has affected citizens’ ability to exercise their rights to free speech and freedom of assembly and expression, among other things, for many years. A number of steps must therefore be taken to ensure that this right is protected, particularly with regard to digital communications.

Studies of the Central European Professors’ Network

Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences, 2020

The article considers the legality of mass surveillance and protection of personal data in the context of the international human rights law and the right to respect for private life. Special attention is paid to the protection of data on the Internet, where the personal data of billions of people are stored. The author emphasizes that mass surveillance and technology that allows the storage and processing of the data of millions of people pose a serious threat to the right to privacy guaranteed by Article 8 of the ECHR of 1950. Few companies comply with the human rights principles in their operations by providing user data in response to requests from public services. In this regard, States must prove that any interference with the personal integrity of an individual is necessary and proportionate to address a particular security threat. Mandatory data storage, where telephone companies and Internet service providers are required to store metadata about their users’ communications ...

Nordicom Review, 2016

Fundamental rights are considered to be those which human beings have by the fact of being human and are neither created nor can be abrogated by any government absent extraordinary circumstances. They are fundamental in that the enjoyment of such rights is necessary to live a life with dignity. Fundamental rights are recognized by several international conventions and treaties such as the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Convention on Economic and Social Rights and they include cultural, economic, and political rights, such as the right to life, the right to liberty, the right of association, and the right to freedom of religion. Privacy is an essential human need. Although the concept of privacy has a certain abstract quality to it that makes it difficult to define, instinctively, humans need to know that they can keep some things secret from others. Absent extraordinary circumstances the need for humans to have a certain degree of privacy is innate. Perhaps as a result of that intrinsic need, privacy as a concept has been recognized in a social as well as a legal sense in most cultures from time immemorial. Today, the right to privacy is considered to be an identifiable human right with universal qualities deserving legal recognition and protection, although the scope of such legal protection is still being determined. In reviewing the concept of privacy, new technologies often make us wonder what level of protection of our right to privacy is possible in a world where personal information about us can be accessed not by infringing our physical space, but by invisible hands that can access our most private secrets just by pressing a button and looking at a screen. New technologies in the form of the Internet, social networks, remote access to information, etc., make it increasingly more difficult to maintain privacy rights in cyberspace such that online invisibility has become impossible. The quest for invisibility is the idea that individuals should be able to choose to remain invisible online. In order for that scenario to become a reality more emphasis needs to be made on the universal recognition of privacy principles in the context of cyberspace. Additionally, design based privacy solutions must be created to protect individuals' privacy in cyberspace.

Globalex, NYU School of Law, USA, 2022

After the invention of computers in the 19th century and the Internet in the late 1960s, the vast majority of our work is done online. The dependence on online platforms has increased over the years, and people have begun using diverse online platforms for various purposes, including learning, business, entertainment, socialization, etc. The growing advancement in information and communication technology (ICT) has brought a radical transformation in the communicating process making life easier, faster, and smarter. This landscape also poses tremendous challenges to privacy, as numerous actors collect, store, and share our personal data with numerous third parties, mostly without our knowledge. Over the last couple of decades, the collection, retention, use, and transfer of personal data have become rampant chiefly by government agencies and businesses. To indicate governments’ aptitude toward data processing, George Orwell once warned in his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four that Big Brother (government authorities) is always watching you. This trend of government-sponsored data processing has increased significantly over time, especially, after September 11, 2001. While business’s data processing has also become evident by new business models that are mostly grounded on personal data. In course of time, the personal data market has become global due to the constant increase of the access and use of the Internet. Eventually, personal data has evolved as the main fuel of the 4th Industrial Revolution era. In such an atmosphere, ordinary citizens, being private individuals, or consumers desire to have adequate legal protections for their privacy rights. Thus, the worldwide debate on privacy concerns has become apparent. Keeping this in mind, this article aims to explore some basic aspects of privacy, including the meaning, value, historical development, challenges, and legal protections as ensured in international, regional, and national legal frameworks.