Privacy at risk in the global information society

Abstract

Privacy is a fundamental civil right which has to be protected in a democratic society. In the global information society, individual privacy is seriously endangered. An increasing amount of personal data is being transferred around the world and communication data of users could be easily traced and used to create individual communication profiles. International privacy regulations, besides the European Union Directive on Data Protection, will be needed because the communication using the new information infrastructure will be global.This paper discusses privacy risks in the global information society. It also compares the Bangemann report and action plan with other national information infrastructure programmes (of the United States, Singapore, Japan, Canada, and Denmark) and critically analyzes their different approaches to privacy protection. The difficulties for a common harmonized approach to privacy protection, due to cultural differences, are shown. Moreover, privacy enhancing technologies are discussed. Finally, minimal requirements for a socially and privacy acceptable design and use of the information infrastructure are suggested.KeywordsEuropean UnionPersonal DataPrivacy ProtectionInformation InfrastructureEuropean Union DirectiveThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.