More private sphere to the United Nations!

The UN Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution on The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age that will lead to the selection of an independent expert on privacy. With 91 NGO worldwide, HCLU called on the UN Human Rights Council in a joint statement to establish a new mandate of a Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy.

In April 2014 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) declared invalid the Data Retention Directive that unified the rules of the retention of selective data by Internet and telephone services and determined the accessibility of data by authorities in the member states. Despite the content of the judgment, the Hungarian act allowing data retention is still in force. In October, 2014 the HCLU started litigation against two major service providers in order to force the Hungarian Constitutional Court (CC) to repeal the unlawful act.

The draft law – currently before the Parliament – on Data Protection and Freedom of Information will replace the independent Data Protection and Freedom of Information Commissioner with an administrative authority. This change will seriously diminish the level of privacy protection and weaken the right to access to information in Hungary.