Enforcing Privacy


Book Description

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.




Transatlantic Jurisdictional Conflicts in Data Protection Law


Book Description

This book looks at transatlantic jurisdictional conflicts in data protection law and how the fundamental right to data protection conditions the EU's exercise of extraterritorial jurisdiction. Governments, companies and individuals are handling ever more digitised personal data, so it is increasingly important to ensure this data is protected. Meanwhile, the Internet is changing how territory and jurisdiction are realised online. The EU promotes personal data protection as a fundamental right. Especially since the EU's General Data Protection Regulation started applying in 2018, its data protection laws have had strong effects beyond its territory. In contrast, similar US information privacy laws are rooted in the marketplace and carry less normative heft. This has provoked clashes with the EU when their values, interests and laws conflict. This research uses three case studies to suggest ways to mitigate transatlantic jurisdictional tensions over data protection and security, the free flow of information and trade.




The Unaccountable State of Surveillance


Book Description

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 are simple 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.




Personal Data Protection and Legal Developments in the European Union


Book Description

In the age of technological advancement, including the emergence of artificial intelligence, big data, and the internet of things, the need for privacy and protection has risen massively. This phenomenon has led to the enforcement of two major legal directives in the European Union (EU) that aim to provide vigorous protection of personal data. There is a need for research on the repercussions and developments that have materialized with these recent regulations and how the rest of the world has been affected. Personal Data Protection and Legal Developments in the European Union is an essential reference source that critically discusses different aspects of the GDPR and the Law Enforcement Directive as well as recent jurisprudential developments concerning data privacy in the EU and its member states. It also addresses relevant recent case law of the Court of Justice of the EU, the European Court of Human Rights, and national courts. Featuring research on topics such as public transparency, medical research data, and automated decision making, this book is ideally designed for law practitioners, data scientists, policymakers, IT professionals, politicians, researchers, analysts, academicians, and students working in the areas of privacy, data protection, big data, information technology, and human rights law.




Global Data Protection in the Field of Law Enforcement


Book Description

This study examines a key aspect of regulatory policy in the field of data protection, namely the frameworks governing the sharing of data for law enforcement purposes, both within the EU and between the EU and the US and other third party countries. The work features a thorough analysis of the main data-sharing instruments that have been used by law enforcement agencies and the intelligence services in the EU and in the US between 2001 to 2015. The study also explores the challenges to data protection which the current frameworks create, and explores the possible responses to those challenges at both EU and global levels. In offering a full overview of the current EU data-sharing instruments and their data protection rules, this book will be of significant benefit to scholars and policymakers working in areas related to privacy, data protection, national security and EU external relations.




The European Union as Guardian of Internet Privacy


Book Description

This book examines the role of the EU in ensuring privacy and data protection on the internet. It describes and demonstrates the importance of privacy and data protection for our democracies and how the enjoyment of these rights is challenged by, particularly, big data and mass surveillance. The book takes the perspective of the EU mandate under Article 16 TFEU. It analyses the contributions of the specific actors and roles within the EU framework: the judiciary, the EU legislator, the independent supervisory authorities, the cooperation mechanisms of these authorities, as well as the EU as actor in the external domain. Article 16 TFEU enables the Court of the Justice of the EU to play its role as constitutional court and to set high standards for fundamental rights protection. It obliges the European Parliament and the Council to lay down legislation that encompasses all processing of personal data. It confirms control by independent supervisory authorities as an essential element of data protection and it gives the EU a strong mandate to act in the global arena. The analysis shows that EU powers can be successfully used in a legitimate and effective manner and that this subject could be a success story for the EU, in times of widespread euroskepsis. It demonstrates that the Member States remain important players in ensuring privacy and data protection. In order to be a success story, the key stakeholders should be prepared to go the extra mile, so it is argued in the book. The book is based on academic research for which the author received a double doctorate at the University of Amsterdam and the Vrije Universiteit Brussels. It builds on a long inside experience within the European institutions, as well as within the community of data protection and data protection authorities. It is a must read in a time where the setting of EU privacy and data protection is changing dramatically, not only as a result of the rapidly evolving information society, but also because of important legal developments such as the entry into force of the General Data Protection Regulation. This book will appeal to all those who are in some way involved in making this regulation work. It will also appeal to people interested in the institutional framework of the European Union and in the role of the Union of promoting fundamental rights, also in the wider world.




Courts, Privacy and Data Protection in the Digital Environment


Book Description

Through critical analysis of case law in European and national courts, this book reveals the significant role courts play in the protection of privacy and personal data within the new technological environment. It addresses the pressing question from a public who are increasingly aware of their privacy rights in a world of continual technological advances – namely, what can I do if my data privacy rights are breached?




Enjeux européens et mondiaux de la protection des données personnelles


Book Description

Cet ouvrage offre une analyse des grands enjeux en matière de protection des données à caractère personnel, à la lumière des dispositions de la proposition de règlement européen et des législations européennes en vigueur. Nous assistons actuellement à une véritable révolution sociale, économique et technologique. L’exploitation des données avec le big data, l’internet des objets, va changer le monde. Face aux avancées, mais également aux inquiétudes que cette révolution suscite, il est important de s’appuyer sur les droits fondamentaux. Ainsi l’ouvrage revient sur la jurisprudence tant de la Cour de justice européenne que celle de la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme. Une attention particulière est également donnée au champ d’application territorial de la proposition de règlement et au transfert des données. L’ouvrage met également en relief la perception américaine des règles de protection des données personnelles par rapport aux dernières négociations entre l’Europe et les Etats-Unis ; il traite en particulier du droit à l’oubli, du profilage ou de la notification des failles de sécurité ; il met en exergue les défis de la protection des données personnelles dans le domaine des services financiers, notamment en matière de fraude au paiement. L’ouvrage s’intéresse ainsi non seulement aux mesures à prendre par les entreprises pour respecter les règles de protection des données, mais aussi à la façon des autorités de les faire respecter. Un ouvrage qui propose une approche aussi bien juridique que pratique sur le sujet. À PROPOS DE L'ÉDITEUR Larcier Group, composé des marques d’édition juridique prestigieuses que sont Larcier, Bruylant, Promoculture-Larcier, propose des solutions documentaires adaptées aux besoins spécifiques de tous les professionnels du droit belge, luxembourgeois et français (avocats, magistrats, notaires, juristes d’entreprise,...). Fournisseur historique et privilégié de toutes les sources du droit, son offre éditoriale est composée, notamment, de la base de données juridique la plus complète de Belgique (Strada lex), de plus de 300 nouvelles monographies par an, plus de 70 revues juridiques, plusieurs collections de Codes, de logiciels de calculs et d’un riche catalogue de formations. Larcier Group est l’éditeur numéro 1 dans le segment juridique en Belgique.À côté de ce segment juridique, Larcier Group s’adresse également aux professions économiques et aux professions RH en Belgique avec sa marque Larcier Business et son offre éditoriale principalement numérique.Avec Indicator, Larcier Group fait partie, depuis juin 2016, du Groupe Éditions Lefebvre- Sarrut, à présent leader en Belgique sur tous les segments de l’édition juridique et fiscale.




Policy change in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice


Book Description

The EU plays an increasingly important role in issues such as the fight against organised crime and the management of migration flows, transforming the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) into a priority of the EU’s political and legislative agenda. This book investigates whether institutional change - the gradual communitarisation of the AFSJ - has triggered policy change, and in doing so, explores the nature and direction of this policy change. By analysing the role of the EU’s institutions in a systematic, theory-informed and comparative way, it provides rich insights into the dynamics of EU decision-making in areas involving high stakes for human rights and civil liberties. Each chapter contains three sections examining: the degree of policy change in the different AFSJ fields, ranging from immigration and counter-terrorism to data protection the role of EU institutions in this process of change a case study determining the mechanisms of change. The book will be of interest to practitioners, students and scholars of European politics and law, EU policy-making, security and migration studies, as well as institutional change.




Algorithmic Life


Book Description

This book critically explores forms and techniques of calculation that emerge with digital computation, and their implications. The contributors demonstrate that digital calculative devices matter beyond their specific functions as they progressively shape, transform and govern all areas of our life. In particular, it addresses such questions as: How does the drive to make sense of, and productively use, large amounts of diverse data, inform the development of new calculative devices, logics and techniques? How do these devices, logics and techniques affect our capacity to decide and to act? How do mundane elements of our physical and virtual existence become data to be analysed and rearranged in complex ensembles of people and things? In what ways are conventional notions of public and private, individual and population, certainty and probability, rule and exception transformed and what are the consequences? How does the search for ‘hidden’ connections and patterns change our understanding of social relations and associative life? Do contemporary modes of calculation produce new thresholds of calculability and computability, allowing for the improbable or the merely possible to be embraced and acted upon? As contemporary approaches to governing uncertain futures seek to anticipate future events, how are calculation and decision engaged anew? Drawing together different strands of cutting-edge research that is both theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich, this book makes an important contribution to several areas of scholarship, including the emerging social science field of software studies, and will be a vital resource for students and scholars alike.