scholarly journals Automatic Curation of Court Documents: Anonymizing Personal Data

Information ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Diego Garat ◽  
Dina Wonsever

In order to provide open access to data of public interest, it is often necessary to perform several data curation processes. In some cases, such as biological databases, curation involves quality control to ensure reliable experimental support for biological sequence data. In others, such as medical records or judicial files, publication must not interfere with the right to privacy of the persons involved. There are also interventions in the published data with the aim of generating metadata that enable a better experience of querying and navigation. In all cases, the curation process constitutes a bottleneck that slows down general access to the data, so it is of great interest to have automatic or semi-automatic curation processes. In this paper, we present a solution aimed at the automatic curation of our National Jurisprudence Database, with special focus on the process of the anonymization of personal information. The anonymization process aims to hide the names of the participants involved in a lawsuit without losing the meaning of the narrative of facts. In order to achieve this goal, we need, not only to recognize person names but also resolve co-references in order to assign the same label to all mentions of the same person. Our corpus has significant differences in the spelling of person names, so it was clear from the beginning that pre-existing tools would not be able to reach a good performance. The challenge was to find a good way of injecting specialized knowledge about person names syntax while taking profit of previous capabilities of pre-trained tools. We fine-tuned an NER analyzer and we built a clusterization algorithm to solve co-references between named entities. We present our first results, which, for both tasks, are promising: We obtained a 90.21% of F1-micro in the NER task—from a 39.99% score before retraining the same analyzer in our corpus—and a 95.95% ARI score in clustering for co-reference resolution.

Author(s):  
William Bülow ◽  
Misse Wester

As information technology is becoming an integral part of modern society, there is a growing concern that too much data containing personal information is stored by different actors in society and that this could potentially be harmful for the individual. The aim of this contribution is to show how the extended use of ICT can affect the individual’s right to privacy and how the public perceives risks to privacy. Three points are raised in this chapter: first, if privacy is important from a philosophical perspective, how is this demonstrated by empirical evidence? Do individuals trust the different actors that control their personal information, and is there a consensus that privacy can and should be compromised in order to reach another value? Second, if compromises in privacy are warranted by increased safety, is this increased security supported by empirical evidence? Third, the authors will argue that privacy can indeed be a means to increase the safety of citizens and that the moral burden of ensuring and protecting privacy is a matter for policy makers, not individuals. In conclusion, the authors suggest that more nuanced discussion on the concepts of privacy and safety should be acknowledged and the importance of privacy must be seen as an important objective in the development and structure of ICT uses.


Author(s):  
Tatiana-Eleni Sinodinou

The present chapter explores privacy issues posed by the use of RFID systems and applications. The existing legal framework for data protection is analyzed in order to discover how general privacy safeguarding principles should be applied in the case of RFIDs, with special focus on the main areas which are going to experience widespread use of such applications. The structure of the chapter is based on a chronological order which follows the consecutive phases of contact and interaction between the individual and the RFID tag. The implementation of a tag to a product or in the human body establishes the first point of contact of the individual with the RFID tag. This stage of data processing is examined in the first part of the chapter. In more particular, this part deals with the application of general principles of fair processing, such as information transparency, the debate about the necessity to require the prior consent of the individual (possible opt-in and opt-out solutions) and the precondition of a clearly defined purpose of the data processing. The symbiosis of the person with the tag is examined in the second part. Indeed, privacy concerns are equally significant during the phase of processing of personal information, even if processing is conducted lawfully, either based on the legal ground of the individual’s consent or justified on another legal basis. The requirement of data quality and the obligation to secure the RFID system against unauthorized interceptions or alterations of data by third parties constitute essential guarantees of fair data processing. Privacy protection in the activation phase of the tag is also ensured by the obligation to inform the tagged individual every time a reading takes place and by the right to verify the accuracy of the tag data, whether stored from the beginning or added at a later date. Finally, the last part of the chapter examines the legal regime of separation between the person and the tag. This phase refers to the termination of the processing either by act of the data subject or by act of the RFID system controller. The focus is given to the exercise of the right to object to the processing of personal data through RFID devices. In this context practical solutions, such as the “tag kill” or “tag sleep” command should be taken into consideration in order to the make the exercise of the right to object feasible.


Author(s):  
R R. Arnesen

Protecting the privacy of citizens is a critical issue in digital government services. The right to privacy is widely recognized as a fundamental human right, as stated in Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948). The first definition of privacy was given by American lawyers Warren and Brandeis (1890), who defined it as “the right to be let alone.” However, the right to privacy has been recognized for millenniums. The Hippocratic oath (n.d.) dates back to around 400 B.C. and instructs medical doctors to respect the privacy of their patients. During the last three decades, many countries have passed privacy legislation, the Swedish Data Act from 1973 being the first national privacy act in the world. During the 1970s, many countries adopted data protection acts (Fischer-Hübner, 2001). In 1980, OECD published its privacy guidelines with the purpose of reducing the potential privacy problems incurred by cross-border trade (OECD, 1980). The European Council adopted Directive 95/46/EC in 1995, and all member states are required to implement national privacy legislation in compliance with this directive (European Union (EU) Directive 95/46/EC, 1995). Privacy is under increasing pressure in the digital age, and the introduction of digital government services may escalate this development. The way government has been organized until now, with separate departments with their own “silos” of personal data, has inherently provided some privacy protection. In such a distributed environment data matching is expensive and resource consuming. This form of privacy protection is referred to as “practical obscurity” in Crompton (2004, p.12). Some examples of threats to privacy related to the development of digital government are as follows: • Data collection capabilities increase as new technology for continuous and automatic data collection is introduced. Examples of such technologies include digital video surveillance, biometric identification and radio frequency identification (RFID). • Data processing capabilities are rapidly increasing. The very existence of large amounts of stored personal data, together with the availability of sophisticated tools for analysis, increases the probability for misuse of data. • There is a trend towards integration of formerly separated governmental services, including physical offices. Providing a single point of contact is more user friendly, but it may also provide an attacker with a single point of attack. • Outsourcing of services (e.g., customer relationship management) is increasingly popular both among companies and governmental organizations. Those who deliver such services to many customers have a unique opportunity to gather personal information from many different sources. If services are outsourced across country borders, and perhaps in several layers, responsibilities soon become unclear. • Even if the organization responsible for stored personal information does not have malicious intents, one cannot expect all its employees to be equally trustworthy. Disloyal employees are a severe threat when increasing amounts of information are stored. • Tax records and other public records made available on the Internet enable efficient searches and aggregation of information about individuals. Identity thefts and fraud are common uses of information gathered in this way.


2020 ◽  
pp. 36-50
Author(s):  
Irina Aseeva

Being an inalienable right of a citizen of a democratic state, the right to privacy of life in the digital age is exposed to constant intrusions and encroachments. Private life is becoming an object of interest for the public, state intelligence agencies, commercial organizations, and crime, who have received the opportunity through information and communication technologies not only to look after a person through correspondence and analysis of personal data, but also to manipulate consumer choice, generate demand, track movements and contacts. At the same time, as the results of sociological studies show, modern society itself is becoming more open, and users of Internet resources give the important personal information, often voluntarily post terabytes of photos and videos, losing the border between privacy and publicity, morally acceptable and legally prohibited.


Blockchain technologies are becoming more popular in securing the sensitive data such as government holding citizens’ s wealth, health and personal information. A blockchain is a shared encrypted data of records, consisting of a ledger of transactions. As the data stored in blockchain is tamper proof, it is proposed to implement new Aadhar enrolments with P2P Blockchains and migrate the existing centralized Aadhar personnel’s personal data from the conventional RDBMS / Big data system repositories to distributed ledger technologies by creating private blockchains. In this paper, we will discuss how to provide security for Aadhar card enrolment data using blockchain architectures. A blockchain-based Aadhaar would help UIDAI in truly complying with the data protection and privacy stipulations outlined in the Right to Privacy Act judgment


Bosniaca ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (25) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Anita Konjicija-Kovač

Privatnost kao pravni koncept nezaobilazan je dio modernog demokratskog društva i prepoznato je kao jedno od temeljnih ljudskih prava svakog građanina. Pravo na privatnost i zaštitu osobnih podataka zajamčeni su međunarodnim dokumentima o ljudskim pravima. U knjižničarskoj se djelatnosti pravo na privatnost i zaštitu osobnih podataka također garantira u dokumentima međunarodnih knjižničarskih udruženja u kojima se jasno naglašava da su knjižničari u svom radu obvezni da štite privatnost i osobne podatke svojih korisnika. Privatnost i osobne podatke je danas sve teže zaštititi, jer je pristup podacima jednostavniji i lakši zbog korištenja različitih i novih informacionih tehnologija, elektronskog komuniciranja, društvenih mreža, elektronskih baza podataka itd. Osobna se prava garantiraju međunarodnim dokumentima o zaštiti osobnih podataka, a štite se nacionalnim zakonima o zaštiti osobnih podataka. Glavni ciljevi rada su: problematizirati definiranje pojma privatnosti iz nekoliko perspektiva; problematizirati značaj prava na privatnost i zaštitu osobnih podataka u kontekstu knjižničarske profesije; dati pregled značajnijih međunarodnih dokumenata u području ljudskih prava u kojima se garantira i pravo na privatnost i zaštitu osobnih podataka; načiniti osvrt na značajnije međunarodne dokumente kojima se garantira pravo na zaštitu i tajnost osobnih podataka; i na kraju rad će dati pregled dokumenata međunarodnih knjižničarskih udruženja koji u svojim tekstovima ukazuju na značaj privatnosti i zaštite osobnih podataka u knjižničnoj djelatnosti.------------------------------------------------------------Right to privacy and protection of personal data in libraries: perspectives and documentsPrivacy as a legal concept is an unavoidable part of a modern democratic society and is recognized as one of the fundamental human rights of every citizen. The right to privacy and the protection of personal data are guaranteed by international human rights documents. In librarianship, the right to privacy and protection of personal data is also guaranteed in the documents of international library associations, which clearly emphasize that librarians are obliged in their work to protect the privacy and personal data of their users. Privacy and personal data are increasingly difficult to protect today, as access to data is simpler and easier due to the use of different and new information technologies, electronic communication, social networks, electronic databases, etc. Personal rights are guaranteed by international documents on protection of personal data and protected by national personal data protection laws. The main objectives of the paper are: to problematize the definition of the concept of privacy from several perspectives; problematize the importance of the right to privacy and protection of personal data in the context of the library profession; provide an overview of significant international documents in the field of human rights which also guarantee the right to privacy and protection of personal data; make a review of important international documents guaranteeing the right to protection and confidentiality of personal data; and finally, the paper will provide an overview of documents of international library associations that in their texts indicate the importance of privacy and protection of personal data in the library business.


2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-78
Author(s):  
Maria Inês de Oliveira Martins

Abstract The need of private insurers for information on the candidate’s health risks is recognized by the law, which places pre-contractual duties of disclosure upon the candidates. When the risks are influenced by health factors, e.g. in the case of life- and health insurances, it implies the provision of health information by the candidates, who thus voluntarily limit their right to privacy. This consent, however, often happens in a context of factual coercion to contract. Next to this, from a legal standpoint, the collection of personal information must respond to the principle of proportionality. Against this background, this article assesses the compatibility of questionnaire techniques that rely on open-ended health related questions with the right to privacy, as protected by Portuguese and international law. It then analyses the extent of pre-contractual duties of disclosure as defined by the Portuguese Insurance Act, which requires the candidate to volunteer all the relevant information independently of being asked for it. In doing so, the article also refers to some other European countries. It concludes that the relevant Portuguese legislation is incompatible both with Portuguese constitutional law and with international law.


Obiter ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Melody Musoni

The focus of this note is to analyze whether the Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity Bill provides a harmonization between search and seizure and the constitutional right to privacy. This will be achieved by discussing the State powers of search and seizure in cyberspace vis-à-vis the right to privacy as envisaged in the Protection of Personal Information Act. Further, this note investigates whether the Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity Bill achieves the purpose of combatting cybercrimes without the infringement of the right to privacy. Subsequently, the article provides plausible recommendations on how the State should lawfully conduct searches and seizures of articles related to cybercrimes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 1509-1514
Author(s):  
Biljana Karovska-Andonovska ◽  
Zoran Jovanovski

The reforms in the communications monitoring system as part of the wider reform of the security services in the Republic of Macedonia, resulted with creation of a package of several laws whose adoption was supposed to provide the legislative basis for a system that would really work in accordance with the goals for which it was established. The communications monitoring system should provide a balanced protection of the right to security, on the one hand, and the right to privacy, on the other. Only on that way a priori primacy of the right to security over the right to privacy will it be disabled. Hence, the reforms in communications monitoring system are a precondition for the effective protection, primarily for the right to privacy and the secrecy of communications, but also for the right to personal data protection, the inviolability of the home as well as for the right to presumption of innocence. It is a complex and delicate matter where opening of a real debate through which the present deficiencies will be perceived in order to create an appropriate legal solutions was very important. However, the new Law on Interception of Communications as the most important in this area, retained a certain part of the provisions that were debatable in the previous legal solutions. The provisions regarding the model for interception of communications, which stipulates the establishment of a separate agency that mediates between the operators and the authorized bodies for interception of communications, were questionable as well. Also, new measures for monitoring communications in the interest of security and defense, as well as the provisions which regulate the disposition and delivery of metadata for security and defense, are also debatable. On the other side, the reform laws made an evident progress in a positive sense through the provisions for oversight and control over the interception of communications. With these changes, certain debatable elements have been overcome, especially those that have hindered it so far, and in some cases completely paralyzed the oversight and control over the monitoring of communications. In this paper we analyzed the debatable elements in the reform package of laws on interception of communications as well as some positive aspects contained in the provisions of the reform laws.


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