The right to privacy is a human right and an element of various legal traditions which may restrain both government and private party action that threatens the privacy of individuals.[1]
Since the global surveillance disclosures of 2013, the inalienable human right to privacy has been a subject of international debate. Under the pretext of combatting 'terrorists', controversial agencies such as the NSA, CIA, RAW, GCHQ, and others have engaged in mass global surveillance, undermining the right to privacy. The violation of this human right has come under the context of other human rights violations committed by Nato-member states (i.e. the unlawful detention of enemy combatants or civilians at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Grahib, and other Black sites, and extraordinary rendition). There is now question as to whether the right to privacy can co-exist with the current capabilities of government agencies to access and analyse virtually every detail of an individual's life. A major question is whether or not the right to privacy needs to be forfeited as part of the social contract in order to bolster defence against alleged terrorist threats.