Since the Human Rights Act (1998) brought the rights agreed upon in the European Convention on Human Rights into domestic law, UK citizens have had a right to privacy.

Article 8 – the right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence - provides protection in our private sphere, and can extend into our working lives and encompass matters relating to our identity, independence and autonomy.

Privacy in the UK

The balance between the privacy of the individual and interests such as national security, crime prevention, and freedom of expression, is far from settled.

The extent of a right to privacy in the UK and its weight in relation to competing values is unclear. Current laws protect some aspects of privacy but disregard others.

Liberty is concerned with how the state, the press and others strike the balance between privacy and other interests.

Key Privacy Issues

Certain themes have emerged around personal privacy in recent years, including:


ID Cards and the National Identity Register

The government’s ID card scheme will establish a system involving collection and retention of personal information on an unprecedented scale. The ID card will be linked to the National Identity Register, and hold over fifty pieces of information about every individual.


Mass surveillance and data profiling

Massive growth in the scale of and use of information held in government databases, without an accompanying update of the legal privacy protection framework.


Increase in targeted surveillance

State sanctioned surveillance against specific targets takes place on a massive scale, using the broad and confusing framework created under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA).


National DNA Database

The number of DNA profiles held on the DNA database increased by 40% between 2007 and 2009 and has now topped 4.5 million. The NDNAD is the largest per capita DNA database in the world and contains DNA the profiles of many who have never been charged, let alone convicted, with any offence.


Closed Circuit Television

Britain is monitored by over 4 million CCTV cameras, with little formal regulation of CCTV usage.