ABSTRACT

Introduction In contrast to the laws relating to the protection of privacy and personal data are those laws that justify, formalise, and regulate state and private party actions likely to impact upon individuals’ normal expectations of privacy, in the pursuit of other legitimate social, political, and economic goals. These include laws that infl uence the use of information technologies, such as telecommunications and the internet, by:

● facilitating the tracing of links between individuals – for example, permitting collection of ‘traffi c data’ identifying when and with whom technology users communicate;

● facilitating the collection of information about the detail of individuals’ interactions – for example, permitting interception of the content of their communications; or

● preventing the effective employment of surveillance countermeasures – for example, forbidding, or limiting the utility of, the use of encryption technologies.