Author: Ketevan Kukava
We live in the age of ubiquitous surveillance,
security cameras, big data, social networks, instant communications. The scale of the collection and sharing of personal data has significantly increased,
which gives rise to multifaceted privacy-related challenges. Technological development has an impact on every aspect of people’s everyday
life. Maintaining control over personal data in the increasingly
digitized and interconnected world is extremely difficult. While
various legal solutions have been offered, there are still doubts regarding the
ability of the regulatory framework to keep pace with rapid technological advancement.
In the digital era, governmental mass surveillance has
emerged “as a dangerous habit rather than an exceptional measure.”[1]
Consequently, restricting civil liberties affects anyone, not just potentially
dangerous persons.
Apart from surveillance by states, surveillance by private
companies also raises significant concerns. Today, the economy, society, and
individuals are largely dependent on the internet and internet-based services.
Users of these services disclose a vast amount of information about themselves.
Information has become an asset and “in two-sided
business models personal data have
become a currency for individuals to pay for services.”[2]
The aims of the companies monitoring their customers are different
from the ones pursued by the state. They are willing to attract more users and increase
their profits. In this case, private data collection cannot be regarded as a
zero-sum manipulation of the individual as people are offered the services they
highly value, such as free email, or an easy way to connect to social networks.[3] Indeed,
individuals voluntarily surrender previously private information to have digital
access to goods, services, and information. On the other hand, considering the state
of technological dependency, refusing the use of electronic means of
communication would actually mean giving up significant social interaction,[4] and
leading a non-digital life while still being able to participate in society would
make less sense.[5]
CCTV cameras have altered modern notions of privacy in
public places as “the mere chance that one's public movements are being
monitored is enough to alter an individual's behavior, regardless of whether
anyone is actually watching.”[6]
Besides, thanks to advances in technology, it is becoming increasingly
possible to integrate digital features into everyday objects which were
previously predominantly offline and to weave them into the Internet of Things,
which also creates risks for users’ privacy.[7]
The Internet offers the opportunity of storing a vast amount of information
indefinitely. While it brought about huge benefits in terms of access to a wide
range of information, content creation, and public dissemination, it also resulted in a reduction
of control over our personal data. As a result, “we - individually and as a
society – have begun to unlearn forgetting”.[8]
A democratic
society can only function if individuals have a certain degree of autonomy and
privacy. There is no doubt that technological
development has brought about significant benefits in many respects. We can easily
retrieve information, connect globally, use e-services, etc. Data collection created
opportunities for research and innovation, and digital communications can be seen as an engine of
various opportunities. The use of advanced technologies makes data a universal
resource in the digital age.
However,
such benefits come with their downsides. Digital progress and sophisticated
technologies create an unprecedented opportunity for surveillance and
monitoring, which is sometimes compared to a contemporary
“panopticon.”[9] This negatively affects an individual’s ability to enjoy
liberty, personal autonomy, and individuality. It seems we are paying a high
price for the benefits brought by digital progress. The significant question we
should try to answer in an increasingly digitized and interconnected world is whether
we are witnessing the demise of privacy or whether we can still find solutions
to modern technological intrusions.
[1]
The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age, Report of the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2014, § 3, available at: https://bit.ly/3HmMCSu
[2] Hielke Hijmans (2016), The European Union as Guardian of Internet
Privacy, The Story of Art. 16 TFEU, Springer International Publishing
Switzerland, p. 96.
[3]
Sarah Horowitz
(2017), Foucault’s Panopticon, A Model for NSA Surveillance? Edited by Russell
A. Miller, Cambridge University Press, p. 60.
[4]
Yael Ronen, Big Brother's Little Helpers:
The Right to Privacy and the Responsibility of Internet Service Providers, 31 Utrecht Journal of International and
European Law, 72 (2015), p. 73.
[5]
Murat Karaboga, Tobias Matzner, Hannah
Obersteller, and Carsten Ochs (2017), Is there a Right to Offline Alternatives
in a Digital World? in Data Protection
and Privacy: (In)visibilities and Infrastructures, edited by Ronald Leenes,
Rosamunde Van Brakel, Serge Gutwirth, Paul De Hert, Springer International
Publishing AG, p. 54.
[6] Jon
L. Mills (2008), Privacy: The Lost Right, Oxford University Press, p. 72.
[7]
Murat
Karaboga, Tobias Matzner, Hannah Obersteller, and Carsten Ochs (2017), Is there
a Right to Offline Alternatives in a Digital World? in Data Protection and Privacy: (In)visibilities and Infrastructures, edited
by Ronald Leenes, Rosamunde Van Brakel, Serge Gutwirth, Paul De Hert, Springer
International Publishing AG, p. 32.
[8] Viktor Mayer-Schőnberger (2009), Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age, Princeton
University Press, p. 92.
[9]
Jon L. Mills (2008), Privacy: The Lost Right, Oxford University Press, p. 13.
