The Rise of a Transnational Movement to Protect Privacy*

Abstract

<jats:p>Scholars have long found profound normative and structural differences between the privacy movements of Europe and the United States, alongside incompatible regimes of regulation. After 9/11, both Europe and the U.S. adopted increasingly intrusive digital security measures, which impinged on the privacy of commercial and personal data. Both the overlap in privacy regimes and the securitization of the two regimes were uncovered by Edward Snowden’s revelations in 2013. The eventual result was the passage of a European privacy protection regulation, the General Data Protection Regulation, in 2016 and greater transnational diffusion and transnational cooperation among European and American privacy activists. But has this convergence produced a transnational movement for privacy? Studying three mechanisms of transnational mobilization—externalization, diffusion, and collective transnationalism—this article employs a political opportunity framework to understand how international events have increased the inclination and the capacity of nationally and regionally based privacy groups to come together in contentious collective action.</jats:p>

Enforcing European Privacy Regulations from Below: Transnational Fire Alarms and the General Data Protection Regulation*

“…While observers often see such evidence as a weakness of the implementation system, our approach suggests GDPR has fostered a new phase of contentious politics in EU data protection (Tarrow, 2005;Kalyanpur and Newman, 2019;Lehoucq and Tarrow, 2020). As NGOs serve as transnational tripwires, they bring to light areas of concern for the public and political principals in the European Commission.…”

“…2 Several NGOs such as the Austrian-based Noyb and the French-based LQDN have engaged in particularly high profile campaigns. In short, there is a growing data protection civil society in Europe capable of engaging in such efforts (Lehoucq and Tarrow, 2020).…”

The civic transformation of data privacy implementation in Europe

“…A critical area for future research, then, is to better understand the drivers of these different NGO implementation styles. Work on civic engagement within the EU has stressed the opportunity structures created by EU law (Lehoucq and Tarrow 2020). Yet, this process has not been universal (Börzel andBuzogany 2010: Sudbery 2010).…”

“…Article 80 of the GDPR specifically created new opportunities for NGOs to directly engage the implementation process (Lehoucq and Tarrow 2020). Still, NGOs and regulators have developed very different tactics and targets of joint implementation.…”