Search

EU regulatory initiatives concerning technology-related topics have spiked over the past few years. On the basis of its Priorities Programme, which is focused on making Europe ‘Fit for the Digital Age', the European Commission has been busily releasing new texts aimed at regulating a number of technology topics, including data uses, online platforms, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence.This book identifies three phenomena which are common to all EU digital technologies-relevant regulatory initiatives: act-ification, GDPR mimesis, and regulatory brutality. These three phenomena serve as indicators or early signs of a new European technology law-making paradigm that now seems ready to emerge. They divulge new-found confidence on the part of the EU digital technologies legislator, who has now asserted for itself the right to form policy options and create new rules in the field for all of Europe.Bringing together an analysis of the regulatory initiatives for the management of technology topics in the EU for the first time, this book will be of interest to academics, policymakers, and practitioners, sparking academic and policymaking interest and discussion.

This book examines the ability of citizens across ten European countries to exercise their democratic rights to access their personal data. It presents a socio-legal research project, with the researchers acting as citizens, or data subjects, and using ethnographic data collection methods. The research presented here evidences a myriad of strategies and discourses employed by a range of public and private sector organizations as they obstruct and restrict citizens'attempts to exercise their informational rights. The book also provides an up-to-date legal analysis of legal frameworks across Europe concerning access rights and makes several policy recommendations in the area of informational rights. It provides a unique and unparalleled study of the law in action which uncovered the obstacles that citizens encounter if they try to find out what personal data public and private sector organisations collect and store about them, how they process it, and with whom they share it. These aresimple questions to ask, and the right to do so is enshrined in law, but getting answers to these questions was met by a raft of strategies which effectively denied citizens their rights. The book documents in rich ethnographic detail the manner in which these discourses of denial played out in the ten countries involved, and explores in depth the implications for policy and regulatory reform.

This book features peer reviewed contributions from across the disciplines on themes relating to protection of data and to privacy protection. The authors explore fundamental and legal questions, investigate case studies and consider concepts and tools such as privacy by design, the risks of surveillance and fostering trust. Readers may trace both technological and legal evolution as chapters examine current developments in ICT such as cloud computing and the Internet of Things. Written during the process of the fundamental revision of revision of EU data protection law (the 1995 Data Protection Directive), this volume is highly topical. Since the European Parliament has adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation 2016/679), which will apply from 25 May 2018, there are many details to be sorted out. This volume identifies and exemplifies key, contemporary issues. From fundamental rights and offline alternatives, through transparency requirements to health databreaches, the reader is provided with a rich and detailed picture, including some daring approaches to privacy and data protection. The book will inform and inspire all stakeholders. Researchers with an interest in the philosophy of law and philosophy of technology, in computers and society, and in European and International law will all find something of value in this stimulating and engaging work.

This volume brings together papers that offer methodologies, conceptual analyses, highlight issues, propose solutions, and discuss practices regarding privacy and data protection. It is one of the results of the eight annual International Conference on Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection, CPDP 2015, held in Brussels in January 2015.The book explores core concepts, rights and values in (upcoming) data protection regulation and their (in)adequacy in view of developments such as Big and Open Data, including the right to be forgotten, metadata, and anonymity. It discusses privacy promoting methods and tools such as a formal systems modeling methodology, privacy by design in various forms (robotics, anonymous payment), the opportunities and burdens of privacy self management, the differentiating role privacy can play in innovation.The book also discusses EU policies with respect to Big and Open Data and provides advice to policy makers regarding these topics.Also attention is being paid to regulation and its effects, for instance in case of the so-called ‘EU-cookie law'and groundbreaking cases, such as Europe v. Facebook.This interdisciplinary book was written during what may turn out to be the final stages of the process of the fundamental revision of the current EU data protection law by the Data Protection Package proposed by the European Commission. It discusses open issues and daring and prospective approaches. It will serve as an insightful resource for readers with an interest in privacy and data protection.

This book is about enforcing privacy and data protection. It demonstrates different approaches – regulatory, legal and technological – to enforcing privacy. If regulators do not enforce laws or regulations or codes or do not have the resources, political support or wherewithal to enforce them, they effectively eviscerate and make meaningless such laws or regulations or codes, no matter how laudable or well-intentioned. In some cases, however, the mere existence of such laws or regulations, combined with a credible threat to invoke them, is sufficient for regulatory purposes. But the threat has to be credible. As some of the authors in this book make clear – it is a theme that runs throughout this book – “carrots” and “soft law” need to be backed up by “sticks” and “hard law”. The authors of this book view privacy enforcement as an activity that goes beyond regulatory enforcement, however. In some sense, enforcing privacy is a task that befalls to all of us. Privacy advocates and members of the public can play an important role in combatting the continuing intrusions upon privacy by governments, intelligence agencies and big companies. Contributors to this book - including regulators, privacy advocates, academics, SMEs, a Member of the European Parliament, lawyers and a technology researcher – share their views in the one and only book on Enforcing Privacy.

This book on privacy and data protection offers readers conceptual analysis as well as thoughtful discussion of issues, practices, and solutions. It features results of the seventh annual International Conference on Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection, CPDP 2014, held in Brussels January 2014. The book first examines profiling, a persistent core issue of data protection and privacy. It covers the emergence of profiling technologies, on-line behavioral tracking, and the impact of profiling on fundamental rights and values. Next, the book looks at preventing privacy risks and harms through impact assessments. It contains discussions on the tools and methodologies for impact assessments as well as case studies.The book then goes on to cover the purported trade-off between privacy and security, ways to support privacy and data protection, and the controversial right to be forgotten, which offers individuals a means to oppose the often persistent digital memory of the web.Written during the process of the fundamental revision of the current EU data protection law by the Data Protection Package proposed by the European Commission, this interdisciplinary book presents both daring and prospective approaches. It will serve as an insightful resource for readers with an interest in privacy and data protection.

This volume brings together papers that offer conceptual analyses, highlight issues, propose solutions, and discuss practices regarding privacy and data protection. The first section of the book provides an overview of developments in data protection in different parts of the world. The second section focuses on one of the most captivating innovations of the data protection package: how to forget, and the right to be forgotten in a digital world. The third section presents studies on a recurring, and still important and much disputed, theme of the Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) conferences : the surveillance, control and steering of individuals and groups of people and the increasing number of performing tools (data mining, profiling, convergence) to achieve those objectives. This part is illustrated by examples from the domain of law enforcement and smart surveillance. The book concludes with five chapters that advance our understanding of the changing nature of privacy (concerns) and data protection.

On 25 January 2012, the European Commission presented its long awaited new “Data protection package”. With this proposal for a drastic revision of the data protection framework in Europe, it is fair to say that we are witnessing a rebirth of European data protection, and perhaps, its passage from an impulsive youth to a more mature state. Technology advances rapidly and mobile devices are significantly changing the landscape. Increasingly, we carry powerful, connected, devices, whose location and activities can be monitored by various stakeholders. Very powerful social network sites emerged in the first half of last decade, processing personal data of many millions of users. Updating the regulatory network was imminent and the presentation of the new package will initiate a period of intense debate in which the proposals will be thoroughly commented upon and criticized, and numerous amendments will undoubtedly be proposed. This volume brings together some 19 chapters offering conceptual analyses, highlighting issues, proposing solutions, and discussing practices regarding privacy and data protection. In the first part of the book, conceptual analyses of concepts such as privacy and anonymity are provided. The second section focuses on the contrasted positions of digital natives and ageing users in the information society. The third section provides four chapters on privacy by design, including discussions on roadmapping and concrete techniques. The fourth section is devoted to surveillance and profiling, with illustrations from the domain of smart metering, self-surveillance and the benefits and risks of profiling. The book concludes with case studies pertaining to communicating privacy in organisations, the fate of a dataprotection supervisor in one of the EU member states and data protection in social network sites and online media. This volume brings together some 19 chapters offering conceptual analyses, highlighting issues, proposing solutions, and discussing practices regarding privacy and data protection. In the first part of the book, conceptual analyses of concepts such as privacy and anonymity are provided. The second section focuses on the contrasted positions of digital natives and ageing users in the information society. The third section provides four chapters on privacy by design, including discussions on roadmapping and concrete techniques. The fourth section is devoted to surveillance and profiling, with illustrations from the domain of smart metering, self-surveillance and the benefits and risks of profiling. The book concludes with case studies pertaining to communicating privacy in organisations, the fate of a data protection supervisor in one of the EU member states and data protection in social network sites and online media.

Although Europe has a significant legal data protection framework, built up around EU Directive 95/46/EC and the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the question of whether data protection and its legal framework are ‘in good health'is increasingly being posed. Advanced technologies raise fundamental issues regarding key concepts of data protection. Falling storage prices, increasing chips performance, the fact that technology is becoming increasingly embedded and ubiquitous, the convergence of technologies and other technological developments are broadening the scope and possibilities of applications rapidly. Society however, is also changing, affecting the privacy and data protection landscape. The ‘demand'for free services, security, convenience, governance, etc, changes the mindsets of all the stakeholders involved. Privacy is being proclaimed dead or at least worthy of dying by the captains of industry; governments and policy makers are having to manoeuvre between competing and incompatible aims; and citizens and customers are considered to be indifferent. In the year in which the plans for the revision of the Data Protection Directive will be revealed, the current volume brings together a number of chapters highlighting issues, describing and discussing practices, and offering conceptual analysis of core concepts within the domain of privacy and data protection. The book's first part focuses on surveillance, profiling and prediction; the second on regulation, enforcement, and security; and the third on some of the fundamental concepts in the area of privacy and data protection. Reading the various chapters it appears that the ‘patient'needs to be cured of quite some weak spots, illnesses and malformations. European data protection is at a turning point and the new challenges are not only accentuating the existing flaws and the anticipated difficulties, but also, more positively, the merits and the need for strong and accurate data protection practices and rules in Europe, and elsewhere.

This timely interdisciplinary work on current developments in ICT and privacy/data protection, coincides as it does with the rethinking of the Data Protection Directive, the contentious debates on data sharing with the USA (SWIFT, PNR) and the judicial and political resistance against data retention. The authors of the contributions focus on particular and pertinent issues from the perspective of their different disciplines which range from the legal through sociology, surveillance studies and technology assessment, to computer sciences. Such issues include cutting-edge developments in the field of cloud computing, ambient intelligence and PETs; data retention, PNR-agreements, property in personal data and the right to personal identity; electronic road tolling, HIV-related information, criminal records and teenager's online conduct, to name but a few.