Yves Poullet

European Data Protection: Coming of Age

On 25 January 2012, the European Commission presented its long awaited new Data protection package. With this proposal for a drastic revision of the data protection framework in Europe, it is fair to say that we are witnessing a rebirth of European data protection, and perhaps, its passage from an impulsive youth to a more mature state. Technology advances rapidly and mobile devices are significantly changing the landscape. Increasingly, we carry powerful, connected, devices, whose location and activities can be monitored by various stakeholders. Very powerful social network sites emerged in the first half of last decade, processing personal data of many millions of users. Updating the regulatory network was imminent and the presentation of the new package will initiate a period of intense debate in which the proposals will be thoroughly commented upon and criticized, and numerous amendments will undoubtedly be proposed. This volume brings together some 19 chapters offering conceptual analyses, highlighting issues, proposing solutions, and discussing practices regarding privacy and data protection. In the first part of the book, conceptual analyses of concepts such as privacy and anonymity are provided. The second section focuses on the contrasted positions of digital natives and ageing users in the information society. The third section provides four chapters on privacy by design, including discussions on roadmapping and concrete techniques. The fourth section is devoted to surveillance and profiling, with illustrations from the domain of smart metering, self-surveillance and the benefits and risks of profiling. The book concludes with case studies pertaining to communicating privacy in organisations, the fate of a data protection supervisor in one of the EU member states and data protection in social network sites and online media. This volume brings together some 19 chapters offering conceptual analyses, highlighting issues, proposing solutions, and discussing practices regarding privacy and data protection. In the first part of the book, conceptual analyses of concepts such as privacy and anonymity are provided. The second section focuses on the contrasted positions of digital natives and ageing users in the information society. The third section provides four chapters on privacy by design, including discussions on roadmapping and concrete techniques. The fourth section is devoted to surveillance and profiling, with illustrations from the domain of smart metering, self-surveillance and the benefits and risks of profiling. The book concludes with case studies pertaining to communicating privacy in organisations, the fate of a data protection supervisor in one of the EU member states and data protection in social network sites and online media.

About the E-Privacy Directive: Towards a Third Generation of Data Protection Legislation?

The main purpose of this contribution is not to analyse provision by provision the E-Privacy Directive presently in course of revision, but to describe the emergence of new principles which, in our view, might be considered as going far beyond the traditional principles enshrined in the Council of Europe Convention 108 and already translated in the E.U. Directive 95/46/EC. These new principles fully take into account the new Privacy threats incurred by individuals, due to the characteristics of modern and future information systems on a more and more global interactive and convergent Internet.

Computers, Privacy and Data Protection: an Element of Choice

Thank you very much for downloading computers privacy and data protection an element of choice. As you may know, people have look hundreds times for their favorite books like this computers privacy and data protection an element of choice, but end up in malicious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some malicious virus inside their computer.This timely interdisciplinary work on current developments in ICT and privacy/data protection, coincides as it does with the rethinking of the Data Protection Directive, the contentious debates on data sharing with the USA (SWIFT, PNR) and the judicial and political resistance against data retention. The authors of the contributions focus on particular and pertinent issues from the perspective of their different disciplines which range from the legal through sociology, surveillance studies and technology assessment, to computer sciences. Such issues include cutting-edge developments in the field of cloud computing, ambient intelligence and PETs; data retention, PNR-agreements, property in personal data and the right to personal identity; electronic road tolling, HIV-related information, criminal records and teenagers online conduct, to name but a few.

Data protection in the clouds

Cloud computing appears as the last step of the evolution of information systems since the technology is using all the possibilities of the virtual world. Before the cloud, the Internet was a set of connections between computers and networks, now it is becoming (it already became?) a place where data can be stored. The phenomenon concerns social networks and other Web 2.0 platforms as well as companies that partly of wholly delocalize their computing resources. This chapter evokes the main privacy issues raised by this evolution. We pinpoint problems related to the protection of legal persons, to security, to transborder data flows, which are inherent to cloud computing and, finally, to the problems met by the law enforcement authorities. This contribution highlights some of the main issues raised by the cloud computing from the perspective of the Council of Europe’s Convention 108 (of January 28, 1981) for the protection of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data Council and it considers its possible modification.

INTERNET CONTENT REGULATION: Concerns from a European User Empowerment Perspective about Internet Content Regulation: an Analysis of some recent Statements — Part I

Abstract This article, published in two parts, explores the debate between the Bertelsmann Foundation and the Centre for Democracy and Technology about regulation of illegal and harmful content on the Internet. The authors analyse the method, interests and limits of the self-regulatory model proposed by the European Institutions, bearing in mind the perspective of user empowerment. Part II considers the possibilities for a global rating system for content and the prospects of ISPs jointly subscribing to controls over legal content.

WiFi roaming: legal implications and security constraints

WiFi technology has become the preferable form for mobile users to connect to the Internet. The growing popularity of WiFi-enabled devices and the increasing number of WiFi networks guarantees that this trend will continue in the future. Since a single network provider is usually not able to ensure WiFi coverage for its own users across many geographic locations the WiFi roaming technology appears to be the promising solution. A special attention upon the practical deployment of WiFi roaming should be paid to possible threats coming from the misuse of technology. In this light we analyze various legal implications that might become relevant due to the deployment of WiFi roaming and discuss several risks and problems related to the security during the establishment of roaming connections between mobile devices and the Internet.

La loi des données à caractère personnel :: un enjeu fondamental pour nos sociétés et nos démocraties ?

Des informations a caractere personnel circulent sur la Toile avec ou sans le consentement des personnes concernees. Les moteurs de recherche, l’adhesion a des reseaux sociaux permettent l’exploitation de donnees dans le cadre de finalites qui ne sont pas toujours clairement affichees. Des societes de marketing definissent, a partir des donnees collectees, le profil de consommation des internautes afin de leur envoyer des bannieres publicitaires adaptees. Les internautes sont soumis au profilage de facon intensive. De meme, la presence de RFID permet plus largement l’enregistrement des individus dans le cadre de leur vie quotidienne. La distinction entre vie privee et espace public s’efface pour laisser place au village global repondant, du moins en apparence, au principe de transparence comme les villages traditionnels. La comparaison entre les villages traditionnels et le village global est trompeuse. Les bienfaits du village global sont contestables. Les frontieres entre espace public et espace prive etant abolies, c’est la responsabilite de chaque acteur qui permet d’introduire en droit des TIC certains principes du droit de l’environnement. A partir de ce constat, il convient de repenser la legislation de protection des donnees pour la survie des libertes. ■

The law encounters communication and information technologies: the case of RFID

The goal of this contribution is limited and ambitious at the same time. It involves the analysis of how a particular technology, Radio Frequency Identifiers (RFID), has developed and how it has initially been regulated outside of the law. Then, we shall attempt to show how the law has sought or seeks, with more or less success in certain contexts, to control this technology.

Which Major Legal Concerns in future e-Health?

e-Health Policy faces a radical change of perspective in the development of new e-Health projects. Indeed these projects are no longer conceived as simple answers to well-identified and specific needs. Today they are part of an Infrastructure Policy that aims at the establishment and the operation of real information highways in healthcare. This paper tests the creation of these highways against four validity criteria: necessity, transparency, security and confidentiality, and quality.

Internet Governance : Some Thoughts after the two WSIS

The challenges faced by the globalisation of our Information Society are numerous and crucial for the future of our democracies. The two WSIS have tried to answer these challenges by proclaiming new rights and overall a new way for governing the Internet. This paper focuses on two major debates: the first one circumvents the right to “Universal Access” viewed as the right for everyone to become a “netizen”. This includes participation in the Information Society, which incorporates not only the right to be connected to the infrastructure, not only the right to gain access to the informational richness available on the Net but also the possibility for everybody to take part in the large discussion forum that is the Internet. The discussion about Internet Governance was the major topic at the Tunis Agenda. The WSIS definitively advocated a transparent, multistakeholder and co-regulatory approach. What does this mean? What role might ICANN fulfil – do we need to reform that organisation? Among the stakeholders, particularly the international organisations, who are the real winners and who is losing? Might the EU approach to co-regulation be taken as a model for Internet governance? All these questions are raised, even if they are not solved, in our comments.