Despite repeated recommendations by the UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly to review, amend or enact national laws to ensure respect and protection of the right to privacy, national laws are often inadequate and do not regulate, limit or prohibit surveillance powers of government agencies as well as data exploitative practices of companies.

Even when laws are in place, they are seldom enforced. In fact PI notes how it is often only following legal challenges in national or regional courts that governments are forced to act. This is not a sustainable position: CSOs, journalists, and human rights defenders often do not have the capacity (or legal standing) to challenge governments or companies’ actions, they may face threats if they so (including of the same unlawful surveillance that they are challenging) and in many jurisdictions there are no independent avenues of effective redress.