ABSTRACT
Many governments collect big data (including phone records, internet activities, and email interactions) from their citizens, as well as foreigners, and analyse the resulting datasets in order to uncover potential terrorist threats. Yet, practices of this sort set back individuals’ interests in privacy, which governments are usually thought to be under a requirement to respect. In order to justify them, it must be shown that they can be carried out in ways that do not constitute a violation of the right to privacy. This chapter rejects three ways in which this has been attempted—by arguing that we can mitigate the set-backs, by arguing that the set-backs constitute a lesser evil, and by arguing that consent for the collection of data can be attained from those affected—and finally offers a novel justification. It is argued that individuals’ can legitimately be asked to surrender personal data as a reciprocal requirement they incur as a result from benefitting from others doing likewise. Relying on this justification, however, will significantly limit the sorts of data-collection practices that governments can permissibly pursue.
