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Protecting privacy - The art of consent

Granqvist, Johan LU (2017) LAGF03 20172
Department of Law
Faculty of Law
Abstract
Personal data is becoming increasingly important in the digital economy. The scope of collection and treatment increases and may threaten personal integrity. Although privacy is regarded as human right, privacy has a very weak position relative other rights and social needs. This is quite strange as privacy is often considered a prerequisite for many of the traditional rights such as freedom of speech and freedom of thought and thus a tenet of democracy. When privacy is protected against social interests such as fight agains crime and terrorism, privacy is often sacrificed. Fighting crime and terrorism are genuine interests and fundamental to a functioning society. What is strange though, is that privacy is valued low compared to... (More)
Personal data is becoming increasingly important in the digital economy. The scope of collection and treatment increases and may threaten personal integrity. Although privacy is regarded as human right, privacy has a very weak position relative other rights and social needs. This is quite strange as privacy is often considered a prerequisite for many of the traditional rights such as freedom of speech and freedom of thought and thus a tenet of democracy. When privacy is protected against social interests such as fight agains crime and terrorism, privacy is often sacrificed. Fighting crime and terrorism are genuine interests and fundamental to a functioning society. What is strange though, is that privacy is valued low compared to commercial interests. Often, the requirement for access to personal data for creation of customer profiles for targeted marketing is weighed considerably more important than the right to privacy. New services based on Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things will put even higher demands on access to personal data. Collection, processing and trade of personal data is extensive, nationally as well as internationally. By combining different datasets and use them for purposes they were not originally intended for makes it possible to draw conclusions severely infringing the privacy of individuals. While the EU is moving towards stricter rules on how data is allowed to be collected and processed, the United States is moving in the opposite direction. During 2017 the United States has repealed a number of statutes having protected individuals' right to privacy and thereby handed over to the market to determine how to handle personal data and secure privacy. The thought is that acceptable level of privacy protection should be obtained through consumer approval of corporate policies, the risk of bad publicity in the case of abuse of personal data and the consumer's right to sue companies that abuse personal data. Even in the EU's new legislation, General Public Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the consent to data processing plays a central role. The requirements for consent formulation are far-reaching but have the same weakness as their American counterpart. Extremely few users read, even less understand, the agreements that must be approved prior to access an internet service or conduct a transaction on the Internet. This opens for abuse of personal data and protective legislation does not achieve its purposes. (Less)
Abstract (Swedish)
Personuppgifter blir allt viktigare i den digitala ekonomin. Omfattningen av insamling och behandling ökar och riskerar att hota den personliga integriteten. Trots att personlig integritet och respekten för privatlivet räknas som som en mänsklig rättighet har dessa en väldigt svag position relativt andra rättigheter och samhälleliga behov. Detta ter sig ganska underligt eftersom den personliga integriteten och respekten för privatlivet ofta anses vara en förutsättning för många av de övriga mänskliga rättigheterna som yttrandefrihet och tankefrihet och därmed kan anses vara en hörnsten för demokratin. När den personliga integritet ställs mot samhällsintressen som brotts- och terrorbekämpning kommer integriteten ofta till korta. Dessa... (More)
Personuppgifter blir allt viktigare i den digitala ekonomin. Omfattningen av insamling och behandling ökar och riskerar att hota den personliga integriteten. Trots att personlig integritet och respekten för privatlivet räknas som som en mänsklig rättighet har dessa en väldigt svag position relativt andra rättigheter och samhälleliga behov. Detta ter sig ganska underligt eftersom den personliga integriteten och respekten för privatlivet ofta anses vara en förutsättning för många av de övriga mänskliga rättigheterna som yttrandefrihet och tankefrihet och därmed kan anses vara en hörnsten för demokratin. När den personliga integritet ställs mot samhällsintressen som brotts- och terrorbekämpning kommer integriteten ofta till korta. Dessa intressen är starka och fundamentala för ett fungera samhälle. Vad som är konstigt är att den personliga integriteten värderas lågt mot kommersiella intressen. Ofta väger krav på tillgång till personuppgifter för att skapa kundprofiler för riktad reklam väsentligt tyngre än rätten till integritet. Nya tjänster baserade på Artificiell Intelligens och Sakernas Internet kommer att ställa än högre krav på tillgång till persondata. Insamling, behandling och handel med persondata är omfattande och sker nationellt så väl som internationellt. Genom att olika dataset kombineras och används för andra syften än de som datat ursprungligen salades in för kan mycket integritetskränkande slutsatser dras om enskilda. Medan EU går mot striktare regler går USA i motsatt riktning. USA har genom ett antal beslut under 2017 upphävt ett antal regler som skyddat enskildas rätt till personlig integritet och därigenom överlämnat till marknaden att avgöra hur personuppgifter får hanteras och integriteten skyddas. Tanken är att ett godtagbart skydd för den personliga integriteten skall erhållas genom godkännande av företagens policies, risken för dålig publicitet vid missbruk av persondata och den enskildes rätt att föra talan mot företag som missbrukar persondata. Även i EUs nya lagstiftning, Allmän Dataskyddsförordning (EU) 2016/679, spelar samtycket till databehandling en central roll. Kraven på samtyckets utformning är långtgående men är behäftad med samma svaghet som dess amerikanska motsvarighet. Ett ytterst fåtal användare läser, än mindre förstår, de avtal som måste godkännas för att få tillgång till en internet tjänst eller genomföra en transaktion på internet. Detta öppnar för missbruk av personuppgifter och att skyddslagstiftningen inte uppnår sina syften. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Granqvist, Johan LU
supervisor
organization
course
LAGF03 20172
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
language
English
id
8930587
date added to LUP
2018-02-06 16:09:35
date last changed
2018-02-06 16:09:35
@misc{8930587,
  abstract     = {{Personal data is becoming increasingly important in the digital economy. The scope of collection and treatment increases and may threaten personal integrity. Although privacy is regarded as human right, privacy has a very weak position relative other rights and social needs. This is quite strange as privacy is often considered a prerequisite for many of the traditional rights such as freedom of speech and freedom of thought and thus a tenet of democracy. When privacy is protected against social interests such as fight agains crime and terrorism, privacy is often sacrificed. Fighting crime and terrorism are genuine interests and fundamental to a functioning society. What is strange though, is that privacy is valued low compared to commercial interests. Often, the requirement for access to personal data for creation of customer profiles for targeted marketing is weighed considerably more important than the right to privacy. New services based on Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things will put even higher demands on access to personal data. Collection, processing and trade of personal data is extensive, nationally as well as internationally. By combining different datasets and use them for purposes they were not originally intended for makes it possible to draw conclusions severely infringing the privacy of individuals. While the EU is moving towards stricter rules on how data is allowed to be collected and processed, the United States is moving in the opposite direction. During 2017 the United States has repealed a number of statutes having protected individuals' right to privacy and thereby handed over to the market to determine how to handle personal data and secure privacy. The thought is that acceptable level of privacy protection should be obtained through consumer approval of corporate policies, the risk of bad publicity in the case of abuse of personal data and the consumer's right to sue companies that abuse personal data. Even in the EU's new legislation, General Public Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the consent to data processing plays a central role. The requirements for consent formulation are far-reaching but have the same weakness as their American counterpart. Extremely few users read, even less understand, the agreements that must be approved prior to access an internet service or conduct a transaction on the Internet. This opens for abuse of personal data and protective legislation does not achieve its purposes.}},
  author       = {{Granqvist, Johan}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Protecting privacy - The art of consent}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}