UNHCHR Releases Report on Privacy in the Digital Age (July 18, 2014) [1]
On July 18, 2014, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report [3] entitled “The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age.” The report concludes, inter alia, that “[i]nternational human rights law provides a clear and universal framework for the promotion and protection of the right to privacy, including in the context of domestic and extraterritorial surveillance, the interception of digital communications and the collection of personal data.” It also finds, inter alia, a “disturbing lack of governmental transparency associated with surveillance policies, laws and practices, which hinders any effort to assess their coherence with international human rights law and to ensure accountability.” In December 2013, the UN General Assembly had requested [4] UNHCHR “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.”