Huge Global Coalition Stands Against Unchecked Government Spying

More than 118 human rights and other civil society organizations from across the globe are taking a stand against unchecked communications surveillance, calling for the governments around the world to follow international human rights law and curtail pervasive spying.  

The coalition of groups published the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communication Surveillance – 13 basic principles that spell out how existing human rights law applies to modern digital surveillance.  Written in response to the increasing number of government surveillance standards that focus on law enforcement and “national security” priorities instead of citizens’ rights, the principles include advice on how surveillance laws should respect the law, due process, and include public oversight and transparency.  Current debates over government surveillance are often limited by outmoded definitions of content versus metadata, or stored data versus data in transit.  The principles released today concentrate on the core issue: how human rights protect all information that reveals private information about an individual’s communications.  

The Principles effort was spearheaded by EFF, Privacy International, and Access. Additional civil society groups are now invited to sign-on to the Principles to protect freedom and privacy. 

TO SIGN, please go to: https://en.necessaryandproportionate.org/about