Privacy and the Role of International Law in the Digital Age

Abstract

Abstract This book examines the role of international law in securing privacy and data protection in the digital age. Driven mainly by the transnational nature of privacy threats involving private actors as well as States, calls are increasingly made for an ‘international’ privacy framework to meet these challenges. Mapped against a flurry of global privacy initiatives, the book explores the extent to which and whether international law attends to the complexities of upholding digital privacy. It does so in three levels. First, the book interrogates boundaries of international privacy law in upholding privacy and data protection in the digital ecosystem where threats to privacy are increasingly transnational, sophisticated, and privatized. It demonstrates that shackled by a host of normative and structural setbacks, international law offers weak protections to privacy and data protection. Second, the book explores the potential of global privacy initiatives, namely Internet bills of rights, universalization of regional systems of data privacy protection, and the multi-level privacy discourse at the United Nations, in reimagining the normative contours of international privacy law. It finds that none of the global privacy initiatives will effectively address structural shortcomings of international law. Third, the book proposes a pragmatic approach to the international law of privacy that could make it better-equipped in the digital age. Drawing on the catalytic potential of global privacy initiatives, the book lays out a set of reform ideas that could help address the major normative and institutional blind spots in international privacy law.