Surveillance and Digital Privacy in the Transatlantic ‘War on Terror’. The Case for a Global Privacy Regime

Abstract

This Article examines the impact of the “War on Terror” on the right to privacy by focusing on generalized mass surveillance. It begins by analyzing and comparing the extent and limits of privacy protection in the United States and the European Union and argues that European Union law provides a higher level of constitutional protection of privacy than U.S. law. The Article continues by providing a detailed analysis of the transformation of privacy in the evolution of transatlantic counterterrorism cooperation, examining the challenges that such cooperation poses on the right to privacy in the European Union, providing a typology, and critically evaluating the various transatlantic forms of governance developed to address European privacy concerns. The final part of the Article argues that, in light of the increasingly globalized nature of mass surveillance and the challenges that extraterritorial surveillance pose on human rights and the rule of law, states should work toward the establishment of a global privacy regime. The Article argues that European Union law can provide key benchmarks in this context and goes on to identify four key principles that should underpin the evolution of a global privacy regime.