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As technology advances, competent authorities are benefitting from its many positive effects, in particular enhanced surveillance capabilities. In an era characterised by the widespread of sophisticated data-gathering and data-matching technologies, the interplay between security and fundamental rights relates to the possibility for citizens to scrutinise security-related processing of data. Citizen awareness and understanding of data processing practices fosters the formulation of appropriate limits to the state powers on security in a democratic society. The right of access, as a data protection safeguard against data protection violations, has the potential to operate as a mechanism for citizens to determine that the state has put in place adequate and effective guarantees against power abuses. Hence, this master’s thesis elaborates on human rights considerations, in particular the right to data protection, that EU Member States have to take into account when performing activities to ensure the security of its citizens. The ultimate goal is to assess the role of the right of access in the balance of power between citizens and the security powers of the state. To that end, this thesis includes an assessment based on the findings arising from a legal analysis on the right of access and its scope in a security context. Moreover, to verify the operationalisation of that prerogative, this study goes beyond a desk-based research and also offers an empirical account the data protection safeguards in two EU legal instruments (namely, the Law Enforcement Directive (LED) and the Passenger Name Record Directive (PNR Directive)). As this thesis will argue, the right of access may help enhance the empowerment of citizens in terms of increasing the transparency and accountability of security-related activities, thus granting more control over the powers of the state. However, the research findings show that this informational empowerment has a limited scope in security-related situations, which reduces the potential impact of this data subject right in this context.