Article 8 of the European Convention guarantees the right to respect for private and family life. It sets out that the state must respect each person’s private and family life, home and correspondence but these freedoms are subjected to limitations in certain circumstances as laid down in Article 8 (2). The Article states that 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. On the importance of the rights protected by Article 8, the European Court opines that the ‘powers of secret surveillance of citizens, characterizing as they do the police state, are tolerable under the Convention only insofar as strictly necessary for safeguarding the democratic institutions..’ The substance of Article 8 is based on the idea of moral autonomy which requires that every person should have some freedom to be allowed to improve his life and lifestyle, to fulfill personal aims and ambitions and to develop his individuality.
