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The State of Surveillance – An Overall Account of Surveillance?

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Privacy and Identity Management. Between Data Protection and Security (Privacy and Identity 2021)

Part of the book series: IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology ((IFIPAICT,volume 644))

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Abstract

The article argues that the extent of surveillance has reached a critical level for democratic societies. However, the jurisprudence of the ECtHR, ECJ and German constitutional court, which never question the extent of surveillance on the structural level, rather aims to legitimize even the most far-reaching measures and thus does not offer effective ex post protection. The introduction of legislative ex ante mechanisms also does not promise to counter the current issues surrounding surveillance measures. Instead, such a mechanism could further legitimize surveillance. The article concludes that while tools to assess the level of surveillance could be helpful when they depart from the premise that the extent of surveillance must be reduced, civil society is best suited to operate and advance these tools in the general discourse.

I would like to thank all participants of the 2021 IFIP Summer School, who provided input at this tutorial. This work is funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research within the project “Privacy, Democracy and Self-Determination in the Age of Artifical Intelligence and Globalisation” (PRIDS), https://forum-privatheit.de.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unabhängiges Landeszentrum für Datenschutz (ULD, Office of the Data Protection Commissioner) Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany

    Felix Bieker

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  1. Felix Bieker
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Correspondence to Felix Bieker .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fraunhofer ISI, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Michael Friedewald

  2. AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Vienna, Austria

    Stephan Krenn

  3. Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, Wolfenbüttel, Germany

    Ina Schiering

  4. University of Münster, Münster, Germany

    Stefan Schiffner

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Bieker, F. (2022). The State of Surveillance – An Overall Account of Surveillance?. In: Friedewald, M., Krenn, S., Schiering, I., Schiffner, S. (eds) Privacy and Identity Management. Between Data Protection and Security. Privacy and Identity 2021. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 644. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99100-5_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99100-5_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-99100-5

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