After years of fighting steroids and drug cheats, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is facing a new obstacle - the right to privacy.

WADA president John Fahey opens a European tour today and will face questions about the agency's revamped "where-abouts" rule for out-of-competition testing.

The system requires athletes to give three months' notice of their location for one hour each day - seven days a week, between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. - for testing. The information is registered online and can be updated by email or text message.

Athletes claim the system does not give them a guaranteed moment of freedom away from dope testers, not even when they're on the beach or at the disco. They say it goes against their basic right to privacy.

"Maybe in the future they will find a tag they can put on us like dogs have," United States hurdler Lolo Jones said.

"Is this the time of the inquisition, or what?" asked FIFA medical committee chairman Michel D'Hooghe, adding that footballers cannot even get a respite during their summer holidays.

From Rafael Nadal to Serena Williams to Michael Ballack, from athletics to skiing, it seems no one is happy.

"I mean why not just have a GPS chip in our skin and they can just figure out where we are," women's World Cup ski leader Lindsey Vonn said.

In Belgium, 65 athletes have started court proceedings against the whereabouts system, citing the European Convention on Human Rights. WADA says it has taken enough legal advice to make sure the rules are within the provisions.

"Where is the middle point between what is the fight against doping and what are human rights? This is the debate," Spanish Sports Minister Jaime Lissavetzky said at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.