As Socialist and Democrat spokesperson on Justice and Home Affairs in the European Parliament, I know that the European Union has been pushing hard to create the first piece of international legislation on data protection - the Data Protection Regulation and Directive - which would help enshrine much needed citizen's protections in the internet age.
The United States of America is not one for letting things go. So when Edward Snowden - a 29-year old CIA employee seconded to the NSA - leaked classified information on highly-secretive surveillance systems, he will have known that his days of anonymity and free-living were numbered.
As we blogged a few days ago, one of the things Eurosceptics are probably rather uncomfortable with at present is the fact that it's the European Union which is acting as a bulwark against American attempts to snoop on the browsing habits of us Europeans.
In a piece for Slate magazine, Matt Yglesias has pointed out a potential problem for Eurosceptics on the back of the Prism surveillance scandal. Essentially, the European Union is acting as a bulwark against American attempts to snoop on the browsing habits of us Europeans.
Those who hate the state love leaks of the sort The Guardian has been publishing. They justify their 'Big Brother' view of all that is supposedly bad about government.