A/HRC/13/37 (EURODAC) for managing applications of asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants through the use of fingerprints is now proposed to be extended to aid the prevention, detection, and investigation of terrorist offences and other serious offences. The European Data Protection Supervisor has expressed doubts as to whether these proposals are legitimate under the right to privacy.42 2. How surveillance has affected other rights 33. Surveillance regimes adopted as anti-terrorism measures have had a profound, chilling effect on other fundamental human rights. In addition to constituting a right in itself, privacy serves as a basis for other rights and without which the other rights would not be effectively enjoyed. Privacy is necessary to create zones to allow individuals and groups to be able to think and develop ideas and relationships. Other rights such as freedom of expression, association, and movement all require privacy to be able to develop effectively. Surveillance has also resulted in miscarriages of justice, leading to failures of due process and wrongful arrest. 34. In many nations around the world, users are being monitored to review what sites they are visiting and with whom they are communicating. In Germany, the Federal Intelligence Service was found in 2006 to have been illegally spying on journalists using communications surveillance and placing spies in newsrooms.43 In Colombia, the Administrative Department of Security was found, in 2009, to have been conducting illegal surveillance of members of the media, human rights workers, Government officials and judges, and their families for seven years.44 In numerous countries across the world, internet users must show identification and their sessions are recorded for future use by authorities. For instance, in Internet service providers in Bangladesh were required in 2007 to turn over records of their users’ identities, passwords and usage to the authorities. Some users were then visited by the authorities, who searched though their computers and contact lists.45 In the United States, the FBI counter-terrorism unit monitored the activities of peace activists at the time of the 2004 political conventions.46 These surveillance measures have a chilling effect on users, who are afraid to visit websites, express their opinions or communicate with other persons for fear that they will face sanctions.47 This is especially relevant for individuals wishing to dissent and might deter some of these persons from exercising their democratic right to protest against Government policy. 35. In addition to surveillance powers, many anti-terrorism laws require individuals to proactively disclose information and provide broad powers for officials to demand information for investigations. In this context, the Special Rapporteur has earlier expressed his concerns about the use of national security letters in the United States.48 Some countries have expanded this power to require the disclosure of information originally collected for journalistic purposes. In Uganda, the 2002 Anti-Terrorism Act allows for wiretapping and 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 GE.09-17804 See the statement by the European Data Protection Supervisor on law enforcement access to EURODAC, 8 October 2009. Deutsche Welle World, “Germany stops journalist spying in wake of scandal”, 15 May 2006. See Semana, 21 February 2009. See E-Bangladeshi, “Crackdown on internet users in Bangladesh”, 3 October 2007 (translating BBC reports). See the American Civil Liberties Union, “ACLU uncovers FBI Surveillance of main peace activists”, 25 October 2006. See D.S. Sidhu, “The chilling effect of government surveillance programs on the use of the Internet by Muslim-Americans”, University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class, vol. 7 (2007), p. 375. A/HRC/6/17/Add.3, para. 51. 13