I’m starting this week’s “What’s new in research” post with three good news:
- There is a new technology law journal in town – Georgetown Law Technology Review, which was just launched. It provides full access to its articles, notes and comments. “Few issues are of greater need for careful attention today than the intersection of law and technology“, writes EPIC’s Marc Rotenberg welcoming the new Review.
- Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology and Society (TILT) launched its Open call for Fellowships Applications for the 2017-2018 academic year. “This programme is for internationally renowned senior scholars who wish to spend the 2017- 2018 academic year, or a semester, in residence at TILT as part of its multi-disciplinary research team to work on some of the most interesting, challenging and urgent issues relating to emerging and disruptive technologies.” I spent three months at TILT in 2012, as a visiting researcher, during my PhD studies. I highly recommend this experience – it’s one of the best environments there are to develop your research in the field of data protection/privacy.
- The Institute for Information Law (IViR), from the University of Amsterdam, announced this week that, together with the Internet Policy Research Initiative (IPRI), from MIT, it has received grants to investigate privacy in smartphone ecosystems. The grants come from a joint program of the national science foundations in the US (NSF) and the Netherlands (NWO).
As for the weekend reads proposed this week, they tackle hot topics: human rights and encryption from a global perspective, international trade agreements and data protection from the EU law perspective, newsworthiness and the protection of privacy in the US.
- “Human rights and encryption“, by Wolfgang Schultz and Joris van Hoboken, published by UNESCO.
“This study focuses on the availability and use of a technology of particular significance in the field of information and communication: encryption, or more broadly cryptography. Over the last decades, encryption has proven uniquely suitable to be used in the digital environments. It has been widely deployed by a variety of actors to ensure protection of information and communication for commercial, personal and public interests. From a human rights perspective, there is a growing recognition that the availability and deployment of encryption by relevant actors is a necessary ingredient for realizing a free and open internet. Specifically, encryption can support free expression, anonymity, access to information, private communication and privacy. Therefore, limitations on encryption need to be carefully scrutinized. This study addresses the relevance of encryption to human rights in the media and communications field, and the legality of interferences, and it offers recommendations for state practice and other stakeholders.”
2. “Trade and Privacy: Complicated Bedfellows? How to Achieve Data Protection-Proof Free Trade Agreements“, by Kristina Irion, Svetlana Yakovleva, Marija Bartl, a study commissioned by the European Consumer Organisation/Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs (BEUC), Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), The Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) and European Digital Rights (EDRi).
“This independent study assesses how EU standards on privacy and data protection are safeguarded from liberalisation by existing free trade agreements (the General Agreement of Trade in Services (GATS) and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)) and those that are currently under negotiation (the Trans-atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA)). Based on the premise that the EU does not negotiate its privacy and data protection standards, the study clarifies safeguards and risks in respectively the EU legal order and international trade law. In the context of the highly-charged discourse surrounding the new generation free trade agreements under negotiation, this study applies legal methods in order to derive nuanced conclusions about the preservation of the EU’s right to regulate privacy and the protection of personal data.”
3. “Making News: Balancing Newsworthiness and Privacy in the Age of Algorithms“, by Erin C. Caroll, published by the Georgetown University Law Center.
“In deciding privacy lawsuits against media defendants, courts have for decades deferred to the media. They have given it wide berth to determine what is newsworthy and so, what is protected under the First Amendment. And in doing so, they have often spoken reverently of the editorial process and journalistic decision-making.
Yet, in just the last several years, news production and consumption has changed dramatically. As we get more of our news from digital and social media sites, the role of information gatekeeper is shifting from journalists to computer engineers, programmers, and app designers. The algorithms that the latter write and that underlie Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms are not only influencing what we read but are prompting journalists to approach their craft differently.
While the Restatement (Second) of Torts says that a glance at any morning newspaper can confirm what qualifies as newsworthy, this article argues that the modern-day corollary (which might involve a glance at a Facebook News Feed) is not true. If we want to meaningfully balance privacy and First Amendment rights, then courts should not be so quick to defer to the press in privacy tort cases, especially given that courts’ assumptions about how the press makes newsworthiness decisions may no longer be accurate. This article offers several suggestions for making better-reasoned decisions in privacy cases against the press.”
Enjoy the reads and have a nice weekend!
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pdpEcho 
Some end-of-the-year good news: People genuinely care about their privacy
Dear followers,
First, I would like to thank you for making this the most successful year in the 5 years life of pdpEcho (I would especially like to thank those who supported the blog and helped me cover, thus, the cost of renting the blog’s .com name). I started this blog when I was in my first year as a PhD student to gather all information I find interesting related to privacy and data protection. At that time I was trying to convince my classic “civilist” supervisor that data protection is also a matter of civil law. And that I could write a civil law thesis on this subject in Romanian, even though Romanian literature on it only counted one book title from 2004. In the five years that followed another book title was added to it and the blog and I grew together (be it at different paces).
In the recent months it offered me a way to keep myself connected to the field while transitioning from Brussels to the US. But most importantly it reminded me constantly that privacy is really not dead, as it has been claimed numerous times. I cared about it, people that daily found this blog cared about it and as long as we care about privacy, it will never die.
I am writing this end-of-the-year post with some very good news from Europe: you and I are not the only ones that care about privacy. A vast majority of Europeans also does. The European Commission published some days ago a Eurobarometer on ePrivacy, as a step towards the launch of the ePrivacy Directive reform later in January.
The results could not have been clearer:
“More than nine in ten respondents said it is important that personal information (such as their pictures, contact lists, etc.) on their computer, smartphone or tablet can only be accessed with their permission, and that it is important that the confidentiality of their e-mails and online instant messaging is guaranteed (both 92%)” (source, p. 2).
“More than seven in ten think both of these aspects are very important. More than eight in ten (82%) also say it is important that tools for monitoring their activities online (such as cookies) can only be used with their permission (82%), with 56% of the opinion this is very important” (source, p. 2).
Overwhelming support for encryption
Remarkably, 90% of those asked agreed “they should be able to encrypt their messages and calls, so they can only be read by the recipient”. Almost as many (89%) agree the default settings of their browser should stop their information from being shared (source, p. 3).
Respondents thought it is unacceptable to have their online activities monitored in exchange for unrestricted access to a certain website (64%), or to pay in order not to be monitored when using a website (74%). Almost as many (71%) say it is unacceptable for companies to share information about them without their permission (71%), even if it helps companies provide new services they may like (source, p. 4).
You can find here the detailed report.
Therefore, there is serious cause to believe that our work and energy is well spent in this field.
The new year brings me several publishing projects that I am very much looking forward to, as well as two work projects on this side of the Atlantic. Nevertheless, I hope I will be able to keep up the work on pdpEcho, for which I hope to receive more feedback and even input from you.
In this note, I wish you all a Happy New Year, where all our fundamental rights will be valued and protected!
Gabriela
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Tagged confidentiality, data protection, e-mail, encryption, eurobarometer eprivacy, European Commission, Gabriela Zanfir, happy new year, pdpecho, people care about privacy, privacy is dead, privacy is not dead, smartphone