Bridging the transatlantic divide in privacy

Paula Kift

Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, 2013, vol. 2, issue 3, 1-7

Abstract: In the context of the US National Security Agency surveillance scandal, the transatlantic privacy divide has come back to the fore. In the United States, the right to privacy is primarily understood as a right to physical privacy, thus the protection from unwarranted government searches and seizures. In Germany on the other hand, it is also understood as a right to spiritual privacy, thus the right of citizens to develop into autonomous moral agents. The following article will discuss the different constitutional assumptions that underlie American and German attitudes towards privacy, namely privacy as an aspect of liberty or as an aspect of dignity. As data flows defy jurisdictional boundaries, however, policymakers across the Atlantic are faced with a conundrum: how can German and American privacy cultures be reconciled?

Keywords: Privacy; Legal tradition; Transatlantic; Data protection; Constitutional law (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:iprjir:213971

DOI: 10.14763/2013.3.190

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