La normalizzazione della sorveglianza di massa nella prassi giurisprudenziale delle Corti di Strasburgo e Lussemburgo: verso il cambio di paradigma del rapporto privacy v. security

Abstract

This essay deals with the analysis of the legality of the mass surveillance of personal data under international and European law in the light of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union. The contribution examines an important change of approach expressed over the years by these courts: on the one hand, in the first phase of their case law, the Courts had established the incompatibility of the indiscriminate and widespread collection of personal information with the European Convention on Human Rights and the relevant EU legislation on individual privacy; on the other hand, in the second phase the legality of said collection was affirmed. The article underlines that this new orientation, based on the paradigm shift between privacy and security and aimed at normalizing mass surveillance in the fight against terrorism and organized crime, raises several and complex issues with regard to the observance of human rights protected both by the Strasbourg system and by European Union law.