Privacy, Expression and the World Wide Web. Shall we Forget?

Google v Spain is an important judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union which has important implications for the rights of individuals’ privacy, the Court’s use of a purposive method of interpretation, the regulation of search engines based outside of the EU, the interaction between the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and European Convention on Human Rights, and international laws. The case establishes that operators of search engines located outside of the EU may be subject to the EU data protection laws (Directive 95/46/EC) and individuals, in certain circumstances, have the right to request that links to personal data held on-line be removed

Cross-Border Issues under EU Data Protection Law with regards to Personal Data Protection

We are living in an inter-connected, global digital society where the services of different operating systems are universal in nature, but many Internet activities are still being tackled by national laws and regulations. A long-existing question is which law is applicable in cases of Internet activities because the online world does not have any physical boundaries. How the European Union (EU) approaches this duality has become a concern for data protection laws. By analysing some recent Court of Justice of the European Union case laws, this article seeks to discover how the EU data protection law tackles disputes involving transnational issues online, which includes its extra-territorial application and cross-border data transfers. The article also indicates that there is an enormous gap between legislation and practice.Peer reviewe

Including but not limited to: How Brussels is emerging as a global regulatory superpower, establishing its data protection standard worldwide

Can the European Union shape global regulatory policy? If it can, what conditions exist? This is the essential question at the centre of this thesis. This thesis will employ the case of global data protection regulation and put the two opposing theories of realist Daniel Drezner and institutionalist Anu Bradford against each other. To answer the first questions data protection authorities around the world have been asked to complete questionnaires on principles in their laws and these have been matched with common European and non-European data protection frameworks. The data indicates that the European Union is able to shape global data protection legislation. Two answer the second question, the two theories have been compared and confronted with the results from the first research question. While both authors cannot be completely proven or disproven, taking only their central disagreement if the European Union can shape policy against the preferences of the United States, Bradford having answered this positively emerges with the data on her side

Data Protection in an Increasingly Globalized World

With the rise of the internet in recent decades, it has become increasingly easy for various enterprises—including retailers, advertising agencies, and service providers—to acquire, use, and even share the personal details of their users. Such a trend is unlikely to decrease in the coming years; in fact, internet usage is only likely to increase as more and more people gain access to the internet. In the wakeof recent data breaches, including the now infamous breach of Equifax as well as the scandal involving Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, people are even more aware of the need for (and the risk of not having) adequate data protection laws. Luckily though, in the last few years there have been serious pushes across the globe to institute new data protection laws that ensure private data is not used for nefarious purposes or given away frivolously. This Note intends to outline the current data protection regimes in three large jurisdictions across the globe (the European Union, China, and the United States), to offer insight into the strengths and weaknesses of each regime, and to predict the path that data protection laws in the United States should take in upcoming years. As will be seen, both the European Union and China, with the institution of their newest data protection laws, use omnibus regimes, in contrast with the United States’ current sector specific regime. The United States should move from its current regime, in which there are only national laws for specific industries, to a more omnibus regime, taking elements from both the European and the Chinese data protection regimes, which will help provide a minimum floor of protection applicable to all citizens whose personal data is being processed rather than allowing for varying levels of protection between states and industries

Privacy and Telecommunications

This article explores the differences in privacy protection between the European Union and the United States, and examines the emerging conflict over data protection. Professor Cate analyzes the European data protection Directive, with particular emphasis on the Directive\u27s extraterritorial provisions. He then examines privacy protection under United States laws and the extent to which that protection satisfies the requirements of the Directive. Finally, Professor Cate focuses on privacy issues involved in telecommunications, an area significantly regulated by United States and European laws, and therefore one area in which some commonality among privacy protection might be anticipated. Even in this highly regulated area, Professor Cate concludes, United States privacy protection for telecommunications-related information fails to meet the standard required by the Directive. However, he argues, the most effective protections for privacy are not legal regulations, but rather individual responsibility, limited governmental oversight, and competition among telecommunication service providers

Privacy and Telecommunications

This article explores the differences in privacy protection between the European Union and the United States, and examines the emerging conflict over data protection. Professor Cate analyzes the European data protection Directive, with particular emphasis on the Directive\u27s extraterritorial provisions. He then examines privacy protection under United States laws and the extent to which that protection satisfies the requirements of the Directive. Finally, Professor Cate focuses on privacy issues involved in telecommunications, an area significantly regulated by United States and European laws, and therefore one area in which some commonality among privacy protection might be anticipated. Even in this highly regulated area, Professor Cate concludes, United States privacy protection for telecommunications-related information fails to meet the standard required by the Directive. However, he argues, the most effective protections for privacy are not legal regulations, but rather individual responsibility, limited governmental oversight, and competition among telecommunication service providers

‘Is Anthropology Legal?’

In May 2018, the European Union (EU) introduced the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) with the aim of increasing transparency in data processing and enhancing the rights of data subjects. Within anthropology, concerns have been raised about how the new legislation will affect ethnographic fieldwork and whether the laws contradict the discipline’s core tenets. To address these questions, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London hosted an event on 25 May 2018 entitled ‘Is Anthropology Legal?’, bringing together researchers and data managers to begin a dialogue about the future of anthropological work in the context of the GDPR. In this article, I report and reflect on the event and on the possible implications for anthropological research within this climate of increasing governance

Data Protection in the European Union: A Closer Look at the Current Patchwork of Data Protection Laws and the Proposed Reform That Could Replace Them All

Laws protecting a European\u27s right to control the flow of their own personal data (also known as data privacy ) date back as early as 1950. In the 65 years since the Council of Europe declared that every person has the fundamental right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence, a patchwork of conventions, directives, treaties and communications have been created to ensure the ongoing protection of this right. However, in recent years, this patchwork approach has been unable to keep up with the pace of technology and has created confusion and concern for the sanctity of what is considered a fundamental human right in the European Union. On January 25, 2012, something profound happened to data protection in the EU. For that was the day the European Commission proposed a massive overhaul of the data protection framework first begun in 1950 and has been continuously growing and evolving ever since. If enacted, the proposed General Data Protection Regulation will fundamentally shift the way the 28 European member nations currently protect their citizen\u27s privacy from one of being done at a national level to potentially one being protected at a supranational level. This article provides an overview of some of the significant documents that created the current patchwork of laws in force in the European Union as well as an introduction the proposed regulation that could change it all. An appendix is included at the end of the article which provides short descriptions of the major bodies involved in data protection governance as well as a glossary of terms used in the article. A bibliography about data privacy and data protection is forthcoming in a future issue of lnternational Journal of Legal Information

Fundamental Rights and Data Privacy in Brazil and in the European Union

Using the methodology of compared literature and compared law from Brazilian and European data protection laws in force, we used the comparative analysis of the legal texts of both laws: General data Protection Law and General Data Protection Regulation, the first from Brazil and the second from Europe, aiming to successfully determine that the legislation in Brazil on this matter is clearly influenced by the present European protecting data regulation because of its modern approach on the protection of fundamental rights, and that it would have never emerged under this European format without the GDPR in the European Union