The Right to Privacy

The Foundations of Privacy

The right to privacy is not explicitly mentioned in many foundational legal texts, yet it has become one of the most important rights of the digital era. Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) protects against 'arbitrary interference with privacy,' and the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 8) guarantees 'respect for private and family life.'

In the United States, the right to privacy was famously articulated in the 1890 Harvard Law Review article by Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis, who argued for a 'right to be let alone.' The Supreme Court later recognized a constitutional right to privacy in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), though the Constitution never uses the word 'privacy.'

These frameworks were designed for a world of physical mail and telephone calls. The digital revolution has created entirely new categories of personal data — browsing history, location data, biometric information — that these frameworks struggle to address.

Privacy in the Digital Era

Today, the average person generates enormous amounts of data daily. Every search query, social media post, purchase, and location ping creates a digital footprint. The business model of the modern internet — offering free services in exchange for personal data — has fundamentally altered the privacy landscape.

Key tensions include: the balance between national security and individual privacy, the role of corporations as custodians of personal data, and the question of whether consent is meaningful when users must agree to lengthy terms of service to participate in modern life. Different legal traditions approach these tensions differently — the EU treats privacy as a fundamental right, while the US takes a more sectoral approach, regulating health data (HIPAA), financial data (GLBA), and children's data (COPPA) separately.