In this paper I explore the infl uence of the state’s approach to foreigners (migrant or nonmigrant) on the rule of law within the receiving country, limiting my considerations to the problem of protecting the right to privacy. My key argument is that normalizing infringement on the privacy of foreigners, for example due to a certain recurrent ‘state of  emergency’, leads to weakening of the execution of privacy protection by means of ground-level regulations. I begin by analyzing the diff erence between the right to privacy and privacy laws, and proceed to make this diff erence clearer by analyzing the foundations of privacy protection in two distinct legal systems, i.e. that of Poland and the USA. Then, I present the similarities and diff erences in treating the foreigners and the citizens of a country using the example of mass surveillance. These observations lead to proposing an answer to the following question: why are foreigners treated diff erently in the context of privacy? Finally, I describe the nature of the aforementioned ‘state of emergency’ and  get into more detail on the relationship between security and privacy infringement. The key point of this paper will be made by describing the process of weakening the citizens’ privacy protection by using the regulations and technology developed for the sake of alleviating the ‘state of emergency’ related to the foreigners.

In this paper I explore the infl uence of the state’s approach to foreigners (migrant or nonmigrant) on the rule of law within the receiving country, limiting my considerations to the problem of protecting the right to privacy. My key argument is that normalizing infringement on the privacy of foreigners, for example due to a certain recurrent ‘state of  emergency’, leads to weakening of the execution of privacy protection by means of ground-level regulations. I begin by analyzing the diff erence between the right to privacy and privacy laws, and proceed to make this diff erence clearer by analyzing the foundations of privacy protection in two distinct legal systems, i.e. that of Poland and the USA. Then, I present the similarities and diff erences in treating the foreigners and the citizens of a country using the example of mass surveillance. These observations lead to proposing an answer to the following question: why are foreigners treated diff erently in the context of privacy? Finally, I describe the nature of the aforementioned ‘state of emergency’ and  get into more detail on the relationship between security and privacy infringement. The key point of this paper will be made by describing the process of weakening the citizens’ privacy protection by using the regulations and technology developed for the sake of alleviating the ‘state of emergency’ related to the foreigners.