Online Privacy Issues

Author(s):  
Hy Sockel ◽  
Kuanchin Chen ◽  
Louis K. Falk

Businesses need to understand privacy conditions and implications to ensure that they are in compliance with legal constraints and do not step on consumers’ rights for privacy. Personal identifiable information (PII) and data can have innate importance to an organization. Some organizations view certain privacy features as essential components of their product or services; for example, profile data is often used to tailor products specifically for their customers’ likes and needs. PII can also be used for less-honorable endeavors such as identity theft, phishing, political sabotage, character annihilation, spamming, and stalking. One of the core issues of privacy is: Who actually owns the data, the holder of the data, or the subject (persons) of the data? The answer depends on many criteria: the users’ perspective, the environment that privacy is addressed, and how the data are collected and used. Privacy issues arise because nearly every activity on the Internet leaves traces somewhere. This audit trail has caused many people to be concerned that this data may be inappropriately used. The paradox is that many businesses are also concerned for a different reason. In this age of legislation and litigation, a “minor” misstep or software glitch could easily put businesses in a position of extreme jeopardy. A data breach at T.J. Maxx that allowed hackers to download over 45 million credit/debit card numbers could literally bankrupt the organization. The damage and fines could easily total more than $4.5 billion; some have the figure as high as $8 billion (Ou, 2007). It is important to state that the governments’ approach to the protection of personal privacy is neither equal nor universal. Some localities extend protection much further than others. In 1972, California amended its constitution to specifically include the construct of “a resident’s inalienable right to privacy.” Within the United States, court decisions dealing with privacy have fairly closely upheld two principles (Freedman, 1987): 1. The right to privacy is NOT an absolute. An individual’s privacy has to be tempered with the needs of society; and 2. The public’s right to know is superior to the individual’s right of privacy. However, some large communities were very slow in becoming involved; Japan did not pass its major protection law (“the Act on the Protection of Personal Information”) to protect consumers and to regulate business until 2005 (Yamazaki, 2005).

Author(s):  
María Nieves Saldaña

Although the federal Constitution of the United States does not expressly recognize a «right to privacy», however, the Supreme Court, over a long and gradual case law, has considered it implicit in the guarantees of the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments. Therefore, in the American constitutional system the right to privacy is a broad concept, which is set along more than a century to progressively delimit those areas of the private sphere which tend to preserve those interests of solitude, sanctuary, autonomy, individuality, personal development, freedom of choice in personal matters, control of personal information, as well as the essential substrate of the inviolable human dignity. These essential individual interests contribute to the formation of an active and participatory citizenship, constituting thus the right to privacy a fundamental legal interest for the very existence of the democratic system.Aunque la Constitución federal de los Estados Unidos no reconoce expresamente un «derecho a la privacidad », sin embargo, el Tribunal Supremo, a lo largo de una extensa y gradual jurisprudencia, lo ha considerado implícito en las garantías de la Primera, Cuarta, Quinta, Novena y Decimocuarta Enmiendas. Por tanto, en el sistema constitucional norteamericano el derecho a la privacidad es un concepto amplio, que se ha configurado a lo largo de más de un siglo al delimitarse progresivamente aquellos ámbitos de la esfera privada que tienden a preservar esos intereses de soledad, secreto, autonomía, individualidad, desarrollo de la personalidad, libertad de elección en asuntos personales, control de la información personal, así como del sustrato esencial de la inviolable dignidad humana. Intereses individuales de carácter esencial que coadyuvan a la formación de una ciudadanía activa y participativa, constituyendo así el derecho a la privacidad un bien jurídico fundamental para la existencia misma del sistema democrático.


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.


Author(s):  
Jessica Lake

This chapter examines cases in which a right to privacy was invoked by women to protest against violations of their bodies or the bodies of their newborn babies. This chapter offers a history of the right to privacy that charts the ways in which the law traditionally “protected” women’s bodies by treating them as male property and confining them to the home. The advent of the camera, its ability to penetrate physical and temporal boundaries, and its creation of movable as well as moving images, brought into question the efficacy of laws such as trespass and nuisance (grounded in physical structures) to protect personal privacy. To highlight the new invasions inflicted by the camera, I compare the cases of DeMay v Roberts and Feeney v Young, which involved the optic violation of a woman’s reproductive body by a stranger’s eyes and a camera respectively. Using a series of medical cases, I argue that many women invoked a right to privacy to protest against the transformation of their bodies (and the bodies of their dead deformed infants) into voyeuristic spectacles of “monstrosity”.


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.


Author(s):  
Knut Fournier

The complexity of the right to privacy is particularly striking when the issues at stake are, ultimately, other political rights and freedoms such as the right to free speech and the right of association. The surveillance of individuals and groups by the state has strong political consequences: the surveillance of political activities re-defines what the private sphere is, and displaces its limits, in a context in which more information is becoming available to the public. Multiple recent developments, exemplified by the role of the right to privacy in movies, exacerbated the tensions between Europe and the United States over the notion of privacy. The future EU data protection laws will create a right to be forgotten, whose political value is still unknown.


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.


2005 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cao Jingchun

This article suggests the Chinese government should establish systematic legal protection for personal privacy in China. First, a brief introduction to the history of the concept of privacy in China is given. Based on the definition of privacy in the Western world, the modern concept of privacy has been absorbed by Chinese scholars and defined according to Chinese norms. During this process, the subjects and objects of the right to privacy have been chosen and the distinctions between the right to privacy, the right of reputation and the right to know have been made clear. This article considers that it is most important to recognise the right to privacy as an independent right both in the Constitution and Civil Code. Depending on the impact of the breach of privacy, liability for civil or criminal punishment should attach.  Besides these measures, a specific data protection law is also essential. 


Author(s):  
Araz Poladov

Purpose of research: define the general characteristics of the protection of personal data; analysis of legislation and case law.Methods of research: analysis and study of regulatory documents containing provisions on protection of personal data.Results: normative and practical importance of personal data protection provisions in various legal acts has been underscored.The right to privacy strengthened its position in the United States in the late 19th century and is now recognized by most States.Although the right to privacy in the United States was originally a British political legacy, judicial decisions in England were more conservativeand cautious than those of U.S. courts. One of the important features of this law in the Anglo-Saxon legal system is that itwas previously formed by judicial precedents and legal doctrine. Also, the right to privacy was not among the rights provided for in theBill of Rights. In general, there is an industry-wide approach to data privacy in the United States. There is no specific federal law thatwould guarantee the confidentiality and protection of personal data. Instead, legislation at the federal level is dispersed and aims to protectdata in certain sectors. Judicial practice and court decisions taken at different times play an important role in regulating personaldata protection in the United States. It is also worth mentioning that until the 1970s, decisions of the U.S. courts did not provide thenecessary privacy protection safeguards.Discussion: offering a comprehensive and detailed study and use of this practice in other states.


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