Global Survey on Internet Privacy and Freedom of Expression

While the right to privacy remains loosely defined (see Section 3 for legal standards), Internet has introduced new forms of intrusion in the right to privacy.

The net enables the collection of new types of personal information, creates new capacities for government and private actors to analyse personal information, creates new opportunities for commercial use of personal data and new challenges for regulation given the transnational nature of the Internet.

This publication examines the relationship between freedom of expression and Internet privacy, providing a global overview of the challenges and opportunities for privacy protection on the Internet. Key aspects are considered such as the role of service providers and intermediaries, the challenge of surveillance and data collection.

Section 3 provides an overview of legal protection, self-regulatory guidelines, normative challenges, and case studies relating to the topic, drawing also on ECHR and EU legal standards.

The document is complemented with a bibliography on Internet privacy and freedom of expression,