Human rights treaties and foreign surveillance: privacy in the digital age

The 2013 revelations by Edward Snowden of the scope and magnitude of electronic surveillance programs run by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and some of its partners, chief among them the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), have provoked intense public debate regarding the proper limits of such intelligence activities. Privacy activists decry such programs, especially those involving the mass collection of the data or communications of ordinary individuals across the globe, arguing that they create an inhibiting surveillance climate that diminishes basic freedoms, while government officials justify them as necessary to prevent terrorism. Snowden’s disclosures proved especially damaging for U.S. foreign policy interests when it was revealed that the United States and some of its “Five Eyes” partners1 spied on the leaders of allied governments, including Germany, Mexico, Brazil, and Indonesia.2