Introduction

On 30 June 2014, The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age: Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) was published. ¹  The Report recognises the relationship between service providers and surveillance and the increasing trend of privatised surveillance, noting:

Cyber security is increasingly important to internet users, including stakeholders in governments, the private sector and civil society. As internet users increase, so does the amount of malware, ² fuelled by ubiquitous smartphones and social networking applications offering new vectors for infection. Botnets – networks of infected devices controlled by malicious operators – are used as proxies to commit criminal acts including fraud and identity or data theft.

Since mid-2013 there have been continuing revelations about the implementation by the United States (US) government of a series of programmes that constitute a system for global mass online surveillance. The initiative involves several agencies, primarily led by the National Security Agency (NSA), in close cooperation with companies that provide services through the internet. The system, which mostly targets foreigners and overseas communications, has affected private communications everywhere, from heads of state to ordinary web users.