The Crisis of Privacy and Sacrifice of Personal Data in the Name of National Security

Abstract

Edward Snowden’s surveillance revelations in 2013 raised the issue of privacy and security in the public spotlight. These revelations underlined the need for a strong data protection framework. At the same time, the pressing demand to address security concerns and the threat of terrorist attacks might weaken privacy and data protection standards. Two landmark judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union, namely the Digital rights Ireland judgment (which invalidates the Data Retention Directive) and the Schrems judgment (which invalidates the Safe Harbour Decision forming a legal basis for transatlantic data transfers) are of great significance in strengthening the rights to privacy and data protection in the context of digital mass surveillance. They continue to have far-reaching implications for EU and national data retention mechanisms, as well on the cross-border data transfer framework. Through the lens of the CJEU, the chapter reveals the key challenges that data protection law faces both at national and EU level that have to be addressed in response to mass surveillance in order to maintain a proper balance between privacy and national security.