Privacy Implications of Emerging and Future Technologies

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2022

Recent decades have produced a wide variety of technical tools for privacy protection. However, the hopes placed in these tools are often inflated. Overestimating the protective effect of privacy-enhancing technologies can be dangerous and may lead to a false sense of security. This chapter stresses that the following aspects need to be born in mind when assessing the real impact of technical privacy safeguards: (1) Data controllers’ reluctance to apply self-limiting privacy safeguards, (2) the loophole created by the notice-and-choice approach to privacy protection, (4) technical challenges and limitations, (4) the limited scope of protection that privacy-enhancing technologies can offer. Also, many problems associated with the processing of personal data are not primarily of technical nature but involve fundamental social, ethical, and political questions. There is no doubt that technical tools play a crucial part in protecting people’s privacy today. They are necessary but not sufficient. To meaningfully protect people against the dangers resulting from modern data processing, strong regulation is needed as well.

Information & Communications Technology Law, 2020

In recent years, research within and outside the European Union (EU) has focused on the expanding scope of personal data. The analysis provided has primarily supported the conclusions that in time, personal data will become so ubiquitous that the EU data protection law would become meaningless, unreasonable, or even discredited and ignored. Notwithstanding these criticisms, EU law is promoted as the 'gold standard' for data protection laws and the law, including its definition of personal data, is being rapidly adopted by many non-EU countries. The objective of this article is to analyse the concept of personal data under EU law and to explore its continued relevance within a data protection framework that is rapidly globalised and in which technology is continuously evolving. The article argues that far from reflecting a universal notion of data protection, the EU law and particularly its definition of personal data reflects a perception of privacy that is peculiarly European. It further argues that recent developments in technology call for a re-examination of the concept of personal data and a more critical approach by countries with nascent data protection regimes. The article proposes the 'objective risk of contextual harm' as a new approach for formulating an alternative definition of personal data. It concludes that this approach better articulates the construction of data protection as a social good and a mechanism for (consumer) protection.

Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 2013

Privacy and data protection are recognized as fundamental human rights. 1 They underpin human dignity and other values such as freedom of association and freedom of speech. Indeed they have become two of the most important human rights of the modern age. However, new technologies undermine individual rights because they facilitate the collection, storage, processing and combination of personal data for the use not only of government agencies, but also of businesses.

2015

In this paper we explore the extent to which privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) could be effective in providing privacy to citizens. Rapid development of ubiquitous computing and 'the internet of things' are leading to Big Data and the application of Predictive Analytics, effectively merging the real world with cyberspace. The power of information technology is increasingly used to provide personalised services to citizens, leading to the availability of huge amounts of sensitive data about individuals, with potential and actual privacy-eroding effects. To protect the private sphere, deemed essential in a state of law, information and communication systems (ICTs) should meet the requirements laid down in numerous privacy regulations. Sensitive personal information may be captured by organizations, provided that the person providing the information consents to the information being gathered, and may only be used for the express purpose the information was gathered for. Any other use of information about persons without their consent is prohibited by law; notwithstanding legal exceptions. If regulations are properly translated into written code, they will be part of the outcomes of an ICT, and that ICT will therefore be privacy compliant. We conclude that privacy compliance in the 'technological' sense cannot meet citizens' concerns completely, and should therefore be augmented by a conceptual model to make privacy impact assessments at the level of citizens' lives possible.

Anali Pravnog fakulteta u Beogradu, 2014

Innovation–The European Journal of Social Science Research, 2010

Privacy is an important fundamental human right. It underpins human dignity and other values such as freedom of association and freedom of speech. However, privacy is being challenged in the networked society. The use of new technologies undermines this right because it facilitates the collection, storage, processing and combination of personal data by security agencies and businesses. This research note presents the background and agenda of the recently-commenced research project PRESCIENT, which aims at reconceptualizing the concept of privacy and developing means for the assessment of privacy impacts.

2013

After the recent spread of the Internet, many technology terms appeared like Smartphone, social media and cloud computing. Flexibility in use this technology encourage people to communicate and share their information in all kinds: photos, videos, documents and sometimes sensitive information like bank account. Annually we note the increased number of users of this technology to be arrived over billions of users. Most of these users are public which they do not realize ambiguity of technology and therefore easier to access their information. The abundance of information and poor knowledge of users about privacy led to the emergence of numerous threats and fears under this term. Thus, the importance of educating people about privacy issues and related risk factors become essential. This paper views the definition of privacy and what level of awareness should be applied. With try to understand some security issues and related laws. And compare between two different privacy laws.

2009

The three primary thrusts of this paper are: first, that people do not think enough about their own privacy, in particular, they may not know enough about their privacy that they can really make informed decisions about sharing information; second, that technologies exist that can mitigate some of the problems associated with information sharing; and third, that services (in addition to technologies) might be a reasonable way to think about addressing the privacy problem.. 1. Why we can't get over it A cheap allusion to a well-known quote - "You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it." - is a good way to start a section on just how little people think of sharing data. This is, after all, a claim that we have allowed to slip away whatever privacy we might have had. More than that, this quote also suggests that whatever consequences might be attendant to this lack of privacy are not sufficient to demand a change. The research we'll report suggests that people think ...

Privacy is recognized as a fundamental human right. It underpins human dignity and other values such as freedom of association and freedom of speech. It has become one of the most important human rights of the modern age. However, privacy is challenged in the net- worked society. New technologies undermine the individual right because they facilitate to collect, store, process and combine personal data for the use of security agencies but also of businesses. In many cases this means that the notion of privacy is losing its value. Thus a new concept seems to be necessary.

2021 Third IEEE International Conference on Trust, Privacy and Security in Intelligent Systems and Applications (TPS-ISA)

This paper deals with the hot, evergreen topic of the relationship between privacy and technology. We give extensive motivation for why the privacy debate is still alive for private citizens and institutions, and we investigate the privacy concept. This paper proposes our vision of the privacy ecosystem, introducing privacy dimensions, the related users' expectations, the privacy violations, and the changing factors. We provide a critical assessment of the Privacy by Design paradigm, strategies, tactics, patterns, and Privacy-Enhancing Technologies, highlighting the current open issues. We believe that promising approaches to tackle the privacy challenges move in two directions: (i) identification of effective privacy metrics; and (ii) adoption of formal tools to design privacy-compliant applications.