Suchergebnisse

Sophie in 't Veld, of the Dutch social liberal party Democrats 66, is a Member of the European Parliament (hereafter: MEP). She is Vice President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. In 't Veld has a specific interest in issues of privacy and data protection. As such, she is a member of, inter alia, the European Parliament's LIBE Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, whose tasks include reviewing the EU's proposed data protection reform package. She is also Chair of the European Parliament's Privacy Platform. In the interview below, conducted on 7th November, 2014, In 't Veld elaborates on how the EU protects, or aims to protect, its citizens' rights to privacy and data protection.

Africa is by far the least developed continent in terms of protection of personal data. At present there are 11 countries out of 54 which have implemented comprehensive data privacy legislation. Nine of them namely, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gabon, Ghana, Mauritius, Senegal and Seychelles belong to sub-Saharan Africa. The other two countries, Morocco and Tunisia, belong to North Africa. Yet, there are seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa with either Bills or drafts on data privacy pending before their respective legislative or executive bodies. These include Ivory Coast (Cote d Ivoire), Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and South Africa. The rest of African countries have neither Bills nor drafts of such laws. The dominant discourse on privacy and data protection advances the culture of collectivism as the reason for the state of privacy and regulation in Africa. Founded on the normative assumptions of the old debates engraved in universalism and cultural relativism, the main argument held in this discourse is that Africa s collectivism denies an individual a space to advance claims for privacy. The present study sought to interrogate this dominant discourse and in particular investigating the emerging trends of adopting comprehensive data privacy legislation in Africa. To avert from the inherent pitfalls of normative assumptions, this study engaged a hybrid methodology. It triangulated the doctrinal, empirical and international comparative law methodologies. Moreover, in order to gain in-depth insights of the state of privacy, the study delimited to three sub-Saharan African countries: Mauritius, South Africa and Tanzania as cases. Based on documents collected and interviews held, this study has found that although collectivist culture is an important factor in explaining the limited state of privacy in Africa, it is not a catch-all phenomenon. Instead, technological, economic, political and social processes have significantly affected privacy consciousness and consequently the systems of privacy and data protection in the continent.

This report describes the Data Management Plan (DMP) for the CarE-Service Project. The report aims at establishing the policy framework for information management and confidentiality within the CarE-Service consortium, the members of the Consumers' and Stakeholders Committees, as well as external stakeholders. The policy framework for data management includes principles ensuring the effective management and confidentiality of data, information and records throughout the related authorities and responsibilities. The main purpose of the data/information management policy is to protect both electronic and paper-version of data/information from any unauthorized use and access with a clear role and responsibilities of those who manage the data/information, while ensuring the greatest possible access of data/information, consistent with legislation and relevant EU/consortium policies. Detailed information will be provided on the procedures that will be implemented for data collection, storage, protection, retention and destruction and confirmation that they comply with national (eg. Bundesdatenschutzgesetz (BDSG) for Germany) and EU legislation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation)). The DMP describes the data management life cycle for the data to be collected, processed and/or generated by CarE-Service Horizon 2020 project. As part of making research data findable, accessible, interoperable and re-usable (FAIR), the DMP includes information on: the handling of research data during & after the end of the project what data will be collected, processed and/or generated which methodology & standards will be applied whether data will be shared/made open access and how data will be curated & preserved (including after the end of the project).

Purpose – To review and critically discuss the current state of privacy in the context of constant technological changes and to emphasize the pace of technological advancements and developments reached over the time when the last EU data protection laws came into effect. These facts inevitably affect the perception of privacy and raise the question of whether privacy is dead or takes the last breath in the digital age? This paper is an attempt to address this question. Design/Methodology/Approach – Based on the comparison and systematic analysis of scientific literature, the authors discuss problematic issues related to privacy and data protection in the technology era – where these issues are too complicated to be clearly regulated by laws and rules since "laws move as a function of years and technology moves as a function of months" (Ron Rivest). Therefore, this analytical approach towards the issue may help to facilitate reaching the best-fit decision in this area. Findings – The authors emphasize the change of perception of privacy, which originated and grew on the idea of "an integral part of our humanity", the "heart of our liberty" and "the beginning of all freedoms" (Solove, 2008), leading to the recently raised idea that privacy is severely hanging with threat. The authors are of the opinion that legislation and regulation may be one of the best and effective techniques for protecting privacy in the twenty-first century, but it is not currently adequate (Wacks, 2012). One of the solutions lies in technology design. Research limitations/implications – The aspects of privacy and data protection in the European Union have been widely discussed recently because of their broad applicability. Therefore, it is hardly possible to review and cover all the important aspects of the issue. This article focuses on the roles of technology and legislation in securing privacy. The authors examine and provide their own views based on the critical analysis of the outstanding scientific material. Practical implications – The authors highlight the ongoing change of perception of privacy. If regulation is left behind the development of technology, privacy will hardly stay alive. On the other hand, if legislation is applied on an ex-ante basis, technological development will depend on the legislators. The balance of both may be the golden means and it basically depends on the coordinated behavior of all the stakeholders. Value – The article emphasizes that the rising role of sharp development of technology by itself does not violate privacy. It is the people using this technology and the policies they carry out that create violations (Garfinkel, 2000). In fact, threats, in the first instance, are the consequences of human behavior. In other words, technology can be a significant factor of violating or demolishing privacy, however, it may also be the major method of protecting it. The balance of both may be the key means.