Katitza Rodriguez writes:
In March 2015, the United Nations Human Rights Council endorsed the creation of a special rapporteur on privacy. The landmark resolution, spearheaded by Brazil and Germany and cosponsored by 46 states, including 10 other Latin American countries, gives the right to privacy the international recognition and protection it deserves.
For Latin America, this resolution couldn’t have come at a better time. An alarming legislative trend is unfolding in several countries in the region, aimed at passing data retention laws that compel telecommunications companies to retain the details of customers’ activities for future review by government agencies. Such details include whom they communicate with, for how long and from where. No one is exempt from this data collection, which is kept available for law enforcement (and other government bodies) to examine in the future.
Read more on Americas Quarterly.
Gee, it would be nice if the U.S. recognized a right to privacy as a human right not to be trampled by government agencies…