Privacy is internationally recognized as a human right in Article 12 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). On the regional level, treaties that make privacy a legally enforceable right include the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the American Convention on Human Rights.
In the context of e-Government, “privacy” specifically refers to principles for the fair use of information. The concept of fair information practices holds that the citizen retains an interest in the information collected by the government in the course of a required or voluntary interaction. The citizen’s rights include a right to insist that the information be used only for the purposes for which it was collected, that it be retained no longer than necessary, that it not be redisclosed, that it be kept in accurate form. Taken together, these rules for the fair use of information are known as “fair information practices.” They are globally recognized by international and regional bodies and are enshrined in key human rights instruments.