Hacker News Reader

Comment by mikece | Hacker News Reader

Do any of the EU countries have a legal history of having the right to privacy enshrined in law and custom?

You might be interested in Aritcle 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_8_of_the_European_Conv...). It was recently used to declare the UK's mass surveillance unlawful (https://dpglaw.co.uk/european-court-of-human-rights-declares...)

See also Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/charter/pdf/text_en.pdf). (side note, the ECHR is why European countries have strong privacy laws since the '70s.)

The EDPS recently said that under the Charter, the infamous “Chat Control” would always be illegal in the EU: https://www.euractiv.com/section/law-enforcement/news/eu-wat....

Very interesting. Does this apply to the Dutch "dragnet" surveillance law too?

https://aboutintel.eu/update-dutch-dragnet-act/

In principle, yes. In practice, no. National security is a matter of the member states. Note that the right to privacy is also in the Dutch constitution. From the little I know, the oversight mechanism in the Netherlands seems to be working to some extent but there are still plenty of caveats:

https://aboutintel.eu/ctivd-bulk-datasets-held-by-intel-need...

Not that I'm aware of, although East Germany still has Stasi in living memory, which gives mass surveillance a tangibley sour aftertaste.

Yes. Also in not so delightful way.

https://www.investigate-europe.eu/en/2023/luxembourg-busines...

This is the case that shut down the public access to Companies House registry, as oligarch’s handyman was complaining access to companies ownership data violates the privacy of his businesses. Might be a net loss for the society in this case.

Like all "rights" in Europe, they are only rights when it's politically convenient.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com