In a new hard-hitting draft report, Navi Pillay, the United Nation's High Commissioner for Human Rights, has thrown the weight of the U.N. General Assembly behind the idea that digital privacy is a human right, and one under attack amid disclosures of surveillance by "signals intelligence agencies," not only the United States' National Security Agency but the United Kingdom's General Communications Headquarters.
High Commissioner Pillay's worry? That technology-enabled violations of personal privacy are no longer, if they ever were, rare events that affect already marginalized populations. "Examples of overt and covert digital surveillance in jurisdictions around the world have proliferated," reads the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights report, called "The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age," "with governmental mass surveillance emerging as a dangerous habit rather than exceptional measure."
The unnerving dynamic that Pillay identifies is that as "the Internet has become both ubiquitous and increasingly intimate," the digital tools like mass data storage that can serve to amplify the online experience have dropped in price, which can also make routine surveillance less costly to governments. "The technological platforms upon which global political, economic, and social life are increasingly reliant are not only vulnerable," reads the report, "they may actually help facilitate it." The phrase that Pillay uses to describe the product of a reliance upon modern technologies and the degree to which they can be monitored is "chilling efficiency."images.
High Commissioner Pillay's worry? That technology-enabled violations of personal privacy are no longer, if they ever were, rare events that affect already marginalized populations. "Examples of overt and covert digital surveillance in jurisdictions around the world have proliferated," reads the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights report, called "The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age," "with governmental mass surveillance emerging as a dangerous habit rather than exceptional measure."
The unnerving dynamic that Pillay identifies is that as "the Internet has become both ubiquitous and increasingly intimate," the digital tools like mass data storage that can serve to amplify the online experience have dropped in price, which can also make routine surveillance less costly to governments. "The technological platforms upon which global political, economic, and social life are increasingly reliant are not only vulnerable," reads the report, "they may actually help facilitate it." The phrase that Pillay uses to describe the product of a reliance upon modern technologies and the degree to which they can be monitored is "chilling efficiency."images.
