Protecting Personal Information: The Right to Privacy Reconsidered

by Andrea Monti, Raymond Wacks

Overview

The concept of privacy has long been confused and incoherent. The right to privacy has been applied promiscuously to an alarmingly wide-ranging assortment of issues including free speech, political consent, abortion, contraception, sexual preference, noise, discrimination, and pornography. The conventional definition of privacy, and attempts to evolve a 'privacy-as-a-fence' approach, are unable to deal effectively with the technological advances that have significantly altered the way information is collected, stored, and communicated. Social media such as Facebook pose searching questions about the use and protection of personal information and reveal the limits of conceiving the right to privacy as synonymous with data protection. The recent European Union's GDPR seeks to enforce greater protection of personal information, but the overlap with privacy has further obscured its core meaning. This book traces these troubling developments, and seeks to reveal the essential nature of privacy and, critically, what privacy is not.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781509924868
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	05/30/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
File size:	356 KB

About the Author

Andrea Monti is Adjunct Professor of Public Policy at the University of Chieti in Italy, and writer in the field of law and technology.
Raymond Wacks is Emeritus Professor of Law and Legal Theory at the University of Hong Kong, and a leading international authority on privacy. He has published widely on the subject for four decades.
Raymond Wacks is Emeritus Professor of Law and Legal Theory at the University of Hong Kong. He is the author of 15 books, several of which have been translated into more than a dozen languages on legal philosophy, privacy, and justice. He is also the co-author of 5 books, and editor of 10. His most recent publications (with Andrea Monti) include Protecting Personal Information: The Right to Privacy Reconsidered (Hart Publishing, 2020), and COVID-19 and Public Policy in the Digital Age (2021), and National Security in the New World Order: Government and the Technology of Information. The sixth edition of his Understanding Jurisprudence: An Introduction to Legal Theory was published in 2021.

Table of Contents

1. Personal Information and Privacy
I. The Genesis
II. Defining 'Privacy'
III. Privacy and Personal Information
IV. A Constitutional Right
V. A Way Forward
VI. Personal Information
2. Personal Information and Data Protection
I. Introduction
II. The Association of Data Protection and Privacy
III. EU Data Protection Law
IV. The European Court of Human Rights
V. Conclusion
3. Personal Information and Power
I. Introduction
II. Genetic Privacy
III. National DNA Databases
IV. Where is 'Privacy'?
4. Personal Information, Goods and Services
I. Introduction
II. Digital Robber Barons
III. Online Profiling
IV. Privacy and Pollsters
5. Personal Information and Freedom
I. Introduction
II. Anonymity
III. Anonymous Remailers
IV. Cryptocurrencies
V. Sexual Preference
VI. Scientific Positivism
VII. Genetic Research
VIII. Copyright
6. Personal Information and the Media
I. Introduction
II. Defining the Media
III. Collecting and Communicating
IV. 'Reasonable Expectation of Privacy'
V. 'Misuse of Personal Information'
VI. The Public Interest
VII. Data Protection
7. Personal Information and Memory
I. A Right to History
II. Photographs
III. Understanding the Past
IV. Profiling
V. Genetics
VI. Privacy
8. Privacy Reconsidered

Editorial Reviews

"Overall, with all its historical references and comments from both jurisdictions (US / UK vs. Continental Europe), the book is worth reading about the long-unfinished policy debate on what the DS-BER and other laws should protect. (Translated from the original German)" --Zeitschrift für Datenschutz

"Protecting Personal Information is recommended reading for a range of scholars, particularly those working in privacy, media, information rights and cyber-law, all of whom will find intellectual treats to inform their work within. Overall ... this volume is a both a valuable attempt to provide clarity to this intriguing, sometimes perplexing area, and a reminder of why privacy is such a rich, fascinating and pervasively important subject." --International and Comparative Law Quarterly

"[T]his book is a timely and welcome addition to the privacy canon as it purposefully, and successfully, goes against much of the privacy zeitgeist that has seen the concept used to deal with a myriad of issues." --Entertainment Law Review

"Not to be missed for anyone who wants to fully understand and know how to deal with data protection beyond the slogans! (Translated from the original Italian)" --Amazon.it

"At last a wonderfully readable analysis of the law and practice of the right of privacy. The book brilliantly explains the many aspects of the uses and abuses of our personal data. I found the authors' account of the digital revolution and the development of data protection up to and including the GDPR both fascinating and compelling. But there is much more to this excellent book: the media, political control, memory, the use of DNA, polling, profiling etc. I like the inclusion of a proposed law that could - and should - be adopted to protect our right of privacy. Strongly recommended." --Amazon.co.uk

From the Publisher