Regulating the Internet in Times of Mass Surveillance: A Universal Global Space with Universal Human Rights?

Hoffmann, Alvina

Abstract

Intelligence agencies’ intrusive data collection practices rely on the citizen/foreigner distinction. Citizens of a state can claim the right to privacy within their own state territory, but not foreigners or citizens abroad. However, there have been various initiatives at the international, regional, and national levels to unsettle this distinction and to enact boundaries to intelligence agencies, codifying the Internet user as an international legal subject. This chapter introduces socio-legal approaches to the study of intelligence by focusing on the Internet through a human rights lens. What is at stake for state territoriality and intelligence agencies’ legitimation of their activities when Internet users claim human rights universally? The chapter focuses on the role of national legislations and aspirational declarations on the Internet as ways to reimagine the Internet as a space of freedom and universal human rights that is not colonised by intelligence agencies’ intrusion. It reviews three different national approaches towards the Internet and their international ramifications through the examples of the United States, Brazil, and Italy. What kind of alliances are made possible through legal regulations on the Internet imposing boundaries on intelligence agencies?

Citation

Hoffmann, A. (2022). Regulating the Internet in Times of Mass Surveillance: A Universal Global Space with Universal Human Rights?. In H. Ben Jaffel, & S. Larsson (Eds.), Problematising Intelligence Studies: Towards A New Research Agenda (181-200). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003205463-12

• Publication Date: May 18, 2022
• Deposit Date: Jun 13, 2025
• Publisher: Routledge
• Pages: 181-200
• Series Title: Routledge New Intelligence Studies
• Book Title: Problematising Intelligence Studies: Towards A New Research Agenda
• Chapter Number: 12
• ISBN: 9781032071213
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003205463-12