Pietrzak and others v Poland
PI, together with Article19 and EFF intervened to outline how unrestricted surveillance of communications data interferences with the right to privacy and threatens freedom of expression.
Name of case: Pietrzak v Poland and Bychawska-Siniarska and others v Poland
Court: European Court of Human Rights
Application nos: Application No. 72038/17 and Application No. 25237/18
Case Status: Closed
In October 2020, PI, Article19, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) intervened in the case of Pietrzak ao v Poland before the European Court of Human Rights.
The case concerns the lack of effective oversight and remedies available under Polish law for individuals subjected to secret surveillance by government agencies.
The applications were filed by five applicants who argued:
- That it was likely that the applicants had been the subjects of secret surveillance operations by various government agencies; and
- That the laws governing surveillance in Poland were in breach of Article 8 and 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The applicants included Mr. Pietrzak, a criminal defense lawyer and chair of the Warsaw Bar Association, Ms. Bychawska-Siniarska and Ms. Grabowska-Moroz, members of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, and Mr. Klicki and Ms. Katarzyna Szymielewicz, members of Warsaw-based NGO Foundation Panoptykon.
PI’s joint intervention with Artice19 and EFF focused on the importance of limiting police and intelligence agencies’ access to communications data – which includes metadata and subscriber data and covers any data apart from the content of a communication. We highlighted how direct and unrestricted access to communications data constitutes a serious interference with the right to privacy. Additionally, we submitted that there are minimum safeguards which governments must adopt when accessing communications data in order to ensure that the right to privacy under Article 8 of the Convention remains effective. We also submitted that it is essential for any legal framework regulating surveillance to include special protections for the communications data of civil society organisations, similar to those enjoyed by lawyers and the press in many jurisdictions. This is a necessary safeguard to protect the right to freedom of expression and avoid the chilling effect of mass surveillance .
On 28 May 2024, the European Court of Human Rights found that Poland's mass secret surveillance powers violated of Article 8. It condemned Poland regarding its operational control regime and the retention and use of communciations data and the secret surveillance regime under the Anti-Terrorism Act. The Court concluded among others that the requirement on information and communications providers to retain users' communications data in an indiscriminate and generalised manner for potential future access by the authorities constituted a serious interference with the right to privacy and that the relevant national legislation was not sufficient to ensure that the interference with the applicants’ right to respect for their private life was limited to what was “necessary in a democratic society”.
* Photo by Reiseuhu on Unsplash