Yves Poullet – författare

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.

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.