14 DAY TRIAL // Google is once more urging the United States government to extend the privacy rights afforded to US citizens to European countries, as an extension of the US Privacy Act.
The move comes many months after Edward Snowden’s revelations highlighted the mass surveillance apparatus put together by the National Security and, with it, the urgent need for reform and protection of people’s privacy.
The US Privacy Act only offers such protection to America’s citizens, leaving everyone else open to what amounts to surveillance with no reason or legal grounds. With as many discussions as there have been regarding the NSA scandal, very few covered the fact that everyone has a right to privacy, regardless of the country they live in.
“Google and many other technology companies have urged the US to take the lead and introduce reforms that ensure government surveillance activity is clearly restricted by law, proportionate to the risks, transparent and subject to independent oversight. Sadly, we’ve seen little serious reform to date,” Google’s David Drummond, chief legal officer, writes in a blog post.
Everyone has a right to privacy
He’s urging US government officials to signal a new attitude regarding this issue when representatives of the European Commission visit Washington DC on Thursday. Right now, European citizens are not protected from surveillance and they don’t have the right to challenge misuse of their data by the US government in US court. In contrast, US citizens have this possibility in most European courts.
The Internet giant states that it supports legislation to extend the US Privacy Act to EU citizens, something that the Obama administration has already pledged to support. On the downside, however, as everyone knows by now, despite talks about reforms and cutting down on the NSA’s capabilities, very little has been done about it.
“We understand that governments have a duty to protect their citizens. The emergence of ISIS and other new threats have reminded us all of the dangers we face. But the balance in the US and many other countries has tipped too far in favour of the state and away from the rights of the individual — rights that are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Drummond writes.
To wrap things up, Drummond pointed out that President Obama recently instructed the intelligence agencies that all people should be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their nationality or wherever they might reside.
Hopefully, we’ll see some actual steps taken in this direction in the coming months, especially as reform talks remain frozen.
