The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age

A/RES/71/199View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 68b Human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, published in 2017.

What other versions does this mandate have?

11 versions · 2014–2024

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/79/175

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2024	A/RES/79/175	The right to privacy in the digital age	5,325	81%Compare
2023	A/RES/77/211	The right to privacy in the digital age	4,500	79%Compare
2020	A/RES/75/176	The right to privacy in the digital age	3,702	36%Compare
2019	A/HRC/RES/42/15	The right to privacy in the digital age	2,872	27%Compare
2019	A/RES/73/179	The right to privacy in the digital age	2,876	7%Compare

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 subjects

Communication Technology Cybercrime Data Protection Digital Technology Right to Privacy

What’s in this document?

23 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms the right to privacy, according to which no one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home or correspondence, and the right to the protection of the law against such interference, as set out in article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights1 and article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;2

Recognizes the global and open nature of the Internet and the rapid advancement in information and communications technologies as a driving force in accelerating progress towards development in its various forms, including in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals;11

Affirms that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, including the right to privacy;

Encourages all States to promote an open, secure, stable, accessible and peaceful information and communications technology environment based on respect for international law, including the obligations enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and human rights instruments;

Calls upon all States:

To respect and protect the right to privacy, including in the context of digital communications;

To take measures to put an end to violations of the right to privacy and to create the conditions to prevent such violations, including by ensuring that relevant national legislation complies with their obligations under international human rights law;

To review their procedures, practices and legislation regarding the surveillance of communications, their interception and the collection of personal data, including mass surveillance, interception and collection, with a view to upholding the right to privacy by ensuring the full and effective implementation of all their obligations under international human rights law;

To establish or maintain existing independent, effective, adequately resourced and impartial judicial, administrative and/or parliamentary domestic oversight mechanisms capable of ensuring transparency, as appropriate, and accountability for State surveillance of communications, their interception and the collection of personal data;

To provide individuals whose right to privacy has been violated by unlawful or arbitrary surveillance with access to an effective remedy, consistent with international human rights obligations;

To develop or maintain and implement adequate legislation, with effective sanctions and remedies, that protects individuals against violations and abuses of the right to privacy, namely through the unlawful and arbitrary collection, processing, retention or use of personal data by individuals, governments, business enterprises and private organizations;

To further develop or maintain, in this regard, preventive measures and remedies for violations and abuses regarding the right to privacy in the digital age that may affect all individuals, including where there are particular effects for women, as well as children and those vulnerable and marginalized;

To promote quality education and lifelong education opportunities for all to foster, inter alia, digital literacy and the technical skills required to effectively protect their privacy;

To refrain from requiring business enterprises to take steps that interfere with the right to privacy in an arbitrary or unlawful way;

To consider appropriate measures that would enable business enterprises to adopt adequate voluntary transparency measures with regard to requests by State authorities for access to private user data and information;

To develop or maintain legislation, preventive measures and remedies addressing harm from the sale or multiple resale or other corporate sharing of personal data without the individual’s free, explicit and informed consent;

Calls upon business enterprises:

To meet their responsibility to respect human rights in accordance with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework,¹² including the right to privacy in the digital age;

¹²A/HRC/17/31, annex.

To inform users about the collection, use, sharing and retention of their data that may affect their right to privacy and to establish transparency policies, as appropriate;

Encourages business enterprises to work towards enabling secure communications and the protection of individual users against arbitrary or unlawful interference with their privacy, including by developing technical solutions;

Encourages all relevant stakeholders to participate in informal dialogues about the right to privacy, and welcomes the contribution of the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on the right to privacy to this process;

Encourages the Human Rights Council to remain actively seized of the debate, with the purpose of identifying and clarifying principles, standards and best practices regarding the promotion and protection of the right to privacy, and to consider holding an expert workshop as a contribution for a future report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on this matter;

Decides to continue the consideration of the question at its seventy-third session.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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