Data Protection on the Move: Current Developments in ICT and Privacy/Data Protection, Edited by Serge Gutwirth, Ronald Leenes and Paul de Hert

Abstract

Data Protection on the Move provides 17 contributions that seek to unearth privacy and data protection issues in the face of technological developments ranging from robotics to Big Data practices and to healthcare. The monograph is mainly the product of the 8th International Conference on Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP), which is a 3-day long Brussels-based conference that took place between 21 and 23 January 2015. The volume accomplishes what the CPDP aims to do and it brings together junior and senior academics in various fields including law, information technology and mathematics as well as practitioners and policymakers. As acknowledged by the editors, the volume does not follow a thematic structure because it aims to cover a wide range of topics. Many contributions offer legal responses to innovations. In her contribution, Bibi van den Berg discusses the privacy and security risks that internet or cloud connected domestic and service robots entail. The author’s view that air gapping (to disconnect any item, device, or network from the internet if this is not vital for their functioning in order to improve their cybersecurity) can be a solution for minimizing these risks is intriguing, because she challenges the assumption that everything by default has to be connected to the internet. Therefore, the author argues that unless it is vital for its functioning, the novel technologies should not be attached to the internet instead of being designed with the assumption that they will be networked, and therefore being considered under the notion of privacy by design standards. The author makes the case for the functionality question for the domestic and service robots, and yet leaves that question open for any other technologies. Another contribution to robotics discourse comes from Ugo Pagallo, whose chapter seeks to explore the impact of domestic robots in a number of contexts: the US approach to the ‘reasonable expectation of privacy’, the distinction between data controller and data processor, and privacy by design. The author’s contribution touches upon the question on to which data protection framework should manufacturers and designers embed in their products.