Nearly one in every three respondents in the U.S. 2Įven more intriguing was the number of people who vehemently condemned domestic governmental surveillance while simultaneously fully condoning foreign surveillance. In the US, 20% believed their government should monitor citizens compared with 50% for foreign nationals. For instance, in Canada only 23% believed their government should monitor citizens compared with 48% for foreign nationals. In some countries the rate of agreement for monitoring foreign nationals was more than double that of citizens. In all surveyed countries, more people were in favour of their government monitoring foreign nationals (45%) than citizens (26%). As summarized by Professor Chris Chambers: One of the study’s most revealing conclusions concerned the extent to which the majority of those interviewed reported tolerance towards surveillance directed at foreign nationals, as opposed to surveillance directed against citizens of their state. The report analyzed the attitudes of roughly fifteen thousand people from across thirteen countries towards the lingering leaks surrounding the pervasiveness of modern-day governmental mass surveillance programs. On March 18, 2015, Amnesty International reported the outcome of a remarkable survey conducted with the help of a British company, YouGov, studying worldwide public reactions to the cascade of revelations by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor-turned-whistle-blower, Edward Snowden. When called out about any of these programs, policy makers often respond to their constituencies with a shrug and a smile: we only apply these programs to foreigners, you have nothing to worry about. Intelligence agencies have been recently involved in the exercise of global indiscriminate surveillance, which purports to go beyond their limited territorial jurisdiction and sweep in “the telephone, internet, and location records of whole populations.” Today’s political leaders and corporate elites are increasingly engaged in these kinds of programs of bulk interception, collection, mining, analysis, dissemination, and exploitation of foreign communications data that are easily susceptible to gross abuse and impropriety. While the rise of information technologies tells a miraculous story of triumph over the physical constraints that once shackled mankind, these very technologies are also the cause of grave concern. The digital age brought with it a new epoch in global political life, one neatly coined by Professor Philip Howard as the “pax technica.” In this new world order, g overnment and industry are “tightly bound” in technological and security arrangements that serve to push forward an information and cyber revolution of unparalleled magnitude. The below is an expression of my own academic thoughts, and in no way should be construed to reflect the views of any of the organizations with which I am associated. I found the process of working with CJIL to be tremendously enjoyable, and the comments and edits provided by its staff to be significantly valuable in improving the overall quality of the final piece. I wish to thank the editorial board and staff of the Chicago Journal of International Law, and in particular Ben, Zach, Caroline, and Jared. I particularly wish to thank Margo Schlanger, Tal Zarsky, Marco Roscini, Marco Longobardo, Eliza Watt, Nico Van Ejik, and Nicholas Gross, for their invaluable feedback. Thank you to all of you for your thoughtful comments, critiques, and questions surrounding previous drafts of this piece. I want to thank the discussants, organizers, and participants at the Tel Aviv University, Buchmann Faculty of Law’s 4th Annual Workshop for Junior Scholars in Law, titled “Law in a Changing Society” the Sussex Center for Human Rights Research Conference, titled “Challenging Human Rights Disenchantment: 50 Years on from the ICCPR and ICESCR” the Michigan Law School’s Third Annual Young Scholars Conference the Westminster International Law Lectures Series and the PLSC-Europe and TILTing2017 Conferences.
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