The legacy of the privacy versus security narrative in the ECtHR's jurisprudence

The post traces the modern culture of mass surveillance to the UN policy of counterterrorism resulting from the 9/11 attacks on the United States. It argues that balancing security needs with privacy rights on the basis of the traditional security/privacy trade-off is misguided, and identifies the complexities involved in the modern culture of surveillance. Further, it highlights that the security narrative has always played an important role in the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR) law making, ultimately leading to the Court’s embracing of mass surveillance practices.

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SUGGESTED CITATION Watt, Eliza: The legacy of the privacy versus security narrative in the ECtHR’s jurisprudence, VerfBlog, 2022/4/21, https://verfassungsblog.de/os6-privacy-vs-security/, DOI: 10.17176/20220421-182404-0.