Strasbourg Observers

View posts from: Right to Private Life

  • Guest Blogger

Indiscriminate Covid-19 location tracking (Part I): Necessary in a democratic society?

May 04, 2020

By Ilia Siatitsa and Ioannis Kouvakas In his recent interview on The Intercept, Edward Snowden questioned whether the measures implemented by authorities amid the pandemic are necessary to safeguard people, as well as, whether the pandemic is seen by governments as just another opportunity to make us acquiesce to mass surveillance. In a scramble to […]

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Bulk retention of private-sector subscriber data for governmental purposes does not violate the Convention: Breyer v. Germany

March 05, 2020

Judith Vermeulen is a doctoral researcher and a member of the Law & Technology research group, the Human Rights Centre and PIXLES at Ghent University. On January 30, 2020, in the case of Breyer v. Germany, the European Court of Human Rights ruled by six votes to one that the – legally required – indiscriminate […]

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Abdyusheva and Others v. Russia: a Sadly Missed Opportunity

January 08, 2020

By Valérie Junod and Olivier Simon On November 26. 2019, the ECtHR issued a 6 to 1 judgment finding that Russia had not breached the right of the complainants when it denied them access to methadone and buprenorphine (these two medicines are hereafter abbreviated to M/B) for treating their duly diagnosed opioid dependence syndrome (ODS). […]

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López Ribalda and Others v. Spain – covert surveillance in the workplace: attenuating the protection of privacy for employees

December 06, 2019

Fotis Bregiannis is a doctoral researcher in the field of European Labour Law at UCLouvain. He works at the social law department of the Centre for the Interdisciplinary Research in Law, Enterprise and Society (CRIDES) and is currently writing a doctoral dissertation on EU legal instruments imposing information-related obligations on MNEs (EWC Directive, 2014/95 Directive). Argyro […]

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Stuck in the middle with Papageorgiou: Missed or new opportunities?

November 27, 2019

Effie Fokas is a political scientist and a Senior Research Fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, Research Associate of the London School of Economics Hellenic Observatory, and member of the Henry Luce/Leadership 100 project on Orthodoxy and Human Rights (Orthodox Christian Studies Center, Fordham University). She was also Principal Investigator of […]

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Suspicionless Stop and Search Powers at the Border and Article 8: Beghal v United Kingdom

April 18, 2019

By John Ip, University of Auckland Faculty of Law On 28 February 2019, the First Section Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered its decision in Beghal v United Kingdom, a de facto appeal from a 2015 UK Supreme Court decision concerning the question of whether Schedule 7 to the Terrorism Act […]

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Another case of violating privacy and personal data protection: Catt v. the United Kingdom

February 22, 2019

This blogpost was written by Judith Vermeulen, PhD researcher in the Law and Technology Research Group at Ghent University. Shortly after Big Brother Watch (see also the blogpost for this case), the European Court of Human Rights again had the opportunity to pronounce itself on the compatibility of Article 8 ECHR with the collection, retention […]

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S.V. v. Italy: on temporality and transgender persons

October 19, 2018

By Pieter Cannoot, PhD Researcher at the Human Rights Centre of Ghent University On 11 October 2018, the European Court of Human Rights found a violation of Article 8 ECHR in a case involving a transsexual woman called S.V. The application concerned the Italian authorities’ refusal to authorise S.V. officially changing her first name on […]

  • Guest Blogger

Big brother may continue watching you

October 12, 2018

By Judith Vermeulen (PhD Candidate, Law & Technology Research Group, Ghent University) On 13 September 2018, more than five years after Edward Snowden revealed the existence of electronic (mass) surveillance programmes run by the intelligence services of the United States of America and the United Kingdom, the European Court of Human Rights (‘ECtHR’) found two […]

  • Guest Blogger

“Bulk interception of communications in Sweden meets Convention standards”: the latest addition to mass surveillance case law by the European Court of Human Rights

July 09, 2018

By Plixavra Vogiatzoglou, Legal Researcher, KU Leuven Centre for IT and IP Law (CiTiP) On 19th June 2018, the Third Section of the Court, in its judgment in the case Centrum för Rättvisa v. Sweden, ruled that the bulk interception of communications scheme of the Foreign Intelligence of Sweden meets the Convention standards. This ruling […]

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Benedik v Slovenia: Police need a court order to access subscriber information associated with a dynamic IP address

June 01, 2018

By Argyro Chatzinikolaou, (Doctoral Researcher), Law & Technology research group, Ghent University Recently, the Fourth Section of the Court held in its judgement in the case of Benedik v Slovenia that there had been a violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) with regard to the failure of the Slovenian […]

  • Guest Blogger

The Whereabouts Requirement: Does the ECtHR protect the right to respect for private and family life of French sport professionals?

February 16, 2018

This guest post was written by Cathérine Van de Graaf, a PhD student at Ghent University. In a judgment on 18 January 2018, the fifth Chamber of the ECtHR found no violation of the right to private and family life in Fédération Nationale des Syndicats Sportifs (FNASS) and Others v France. The case concerned the […]

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Egill Einarsson v Iceland: the Court deals with an offensive Instagram post

January 19, 2018

This guest post was written by Ingrida Milkaite, Ghent University* On 7 November 2017 the European Court of Human Rights (the ECtHR, the Court) found a violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The main issue at hand was the Court’s assessment of whether the right balance between the applicant’s right […]

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Tamiz v. UK: Google’s blog-publishing service is not liable for offensive comments

November 23, 2017

This guest post was written by Ingrida Milkaite (Ghent University)* On 12 October 2017 the European Court of Human Rights (the Court, the ECtHR) decided on the liability of Google Inc. as an information society service provider for offensive comments posted below a blog post about Mr Payam Tamiz. His application filed under article 8 […]

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Bărbulescu v Romania and workplace privacy: is the Grand Chamber’s judgment a reason to celebrate?

October 19, 2017

By Argyro Chatzinikolaou, (Doctoral Student), Law & Technology, Faculty of Law, Ghent University The recent judgment of the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR in the case of Bărbulescu v Romania found that the monitoring of an employee’s email account resulted in the violation of his right to respect for private life and correspondence within the […]

  • Guest Blogger

Publication of a picture of a 3-year-old, representing him as an orphan, violates article 8 ECHR

July 19, 2017

By Ingrida Milkaite, Ghent University The case of Bogomolova v. Russia concerns the use of an unauthorised photograph of a minor’s face on the front page of a booklet promoting adoption and help for orphans. It proves that the publication of pictures of children without parental consent may have a significant social impact on the […]

  • Guest Blogger

No journalism exception for massive exposure of personal taxation data

July 05, 2017

By Dirk Voorhoof, Ghent University, Human Rights Centre.  After long proceedings at national level, after a preliminary ruling by the EU Court of Justice on 16 December 2008 (Case C-73/07), and after the European Court of Human Rights Chamber judgment of 21 July 2015, the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR on 27 June 2017 finally […]

  • Guest Blogger

A.P., Garçon and Nicot v. France: the Court draws a line for trans rights

May 05, 2017

By Pieter Cannoot, PhD researcher of human rights law (Ghent University) On 6 April 2017, the European Court of Human Rights significantly strengthened the human rights protection of trans persons, with its long-awaited judgment in the case A.P., Garçon and Nicot v. France. The Court ruled that the condition of compulsory sterilizing surgery or treatment […]

  • Guest Blogger

Paradiso and Campanelli v. Italy: Lost in Recognition. Filiation of an Adopted Embryo born by Surrogate Woman in a Foreign Country

April 04, 2017

By Elena Ignovska, Assistant professor, University Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Faculty of Law, Skopje, Macedonia. Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) undoubtedly triggered an earthquake in the concept of parenthood, resulting in a fragmentation of the possible parents: genetic/biological, gestational, factual and legal. Their initial objective was to enable infertile couples to parent genetically related progeny. Yet, […]

  • Guest Blogger

Resuscitating Workplace Privacy? A Brief Account of the Grand Chamber Hearing in Bărbulescu v. Romania

December 20, 2016

Guest post by Gaurav Mukherjee[1] and James Wookey[2] On 30 November 2016, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) heard oral arguments in Bărbulescu v. Romania. The case was referred to the Grand Chamber on 6 June 2016, after a Chamber judgment delivered on 12 January 2016.  The applicant sent private […]

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