It's also in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). But that has a big loop whole.

Article 8: Right to privacy

1. Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. 2. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

They could have just left out Article 8. Its a “no interference by a public authority unless it want’s to.” “Well-being of the country”, “protection of health or morals” are terms that make this statute irrelevant and dependent on the current mood of the EU.

Privacy needs to be an absolute right. Any invasion of privacy of any individual is a violation of their rights and needs to be treated as such with actual repercussions following misconduct.

Coming from an American perspective, this is quite shocking and indistinguishable from parody.

"Everyone has a right to privacy expect for all cases where government decides for any reason for any that it should not apply."

> Everybody has a right to privacy (except where inconvenient).