Functional anonymisation: Personal data and the data environment

Anonymisation of personal data has a long history stemming from the expansion of the types of data products routinely provided by National Statistical Institutes. Variants on anonymisation have received serious criticism reinforced by much-publicised apparent failures. We argue that both the operators of such schemes and their critics have become confused by being overly focused on the properties of the data itself. We claim that, far from being able to determine whether data is anonymous (and therefore non-personal) by looking at the data alone, any anonymisation technique worthy of the name must take account of not only the data but also its environment.This paper proposes an alternative formulation called functional anonymisation that focuses on the relationship between the data and the environment within which the data exists (the data environment). We provide a formulation for describing the relationship between the data and its environment that links the legal notion of personal data with the statistical notion of disclosure control. Anonymisation, properly conceived and effectively conducted, can be a critical part of the toolkit of the privacy-respecting data controller and the wider remit of providing accurate and usable data.     

Dualism in data protection: Balancing the right to personal data and the data property right

This paper explores the issues surrounding the right to personal data and the data property right in the context of commercial transactions involving big data, and will thus inform the ongoing drafting process of the Chinese Civil Code and development of a commercial data market in China. The analysis herein attempts to break through the traditional concept of ‘property’ with the aim of helping China to develop a modern information society, devise a property law theory suitable for the big data era, and improve the level of protection afforded to rights and legitimate interests in data. To date, no comprehensive study has focused on developing a proper understanding of the concept of ‘data property rights’, and hence we lack the solid theoretical support needed to construct a proper protective system for such rights. This paper offers the first systematic study of the rules pertaining to data property rights, thereby enriching the theory of such rights and serving as a theoretical basis for the enactment of a civil code that protects citizens’ legal rights and interests in the information society. It also offers a thorough discussion of how to construct a data property protection system, thereby providing an ideal reference model for enactment of the Chinese Civil Code.     

Reliability and validity of cross-national homicide data: a comparison of UN and WHO data

Data reliability and validity are methodological concerns in cross-national analyses of crime, but there is little agreement on which source of data provides the most reliable estimates. Moreover, few studies have examined the potential threat to validity posed by unclassified deaths. The current study aims to (1) assess the reliability of cross-national homicide data from the United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization (WHO); and (2) investigate the impact of unclassified deaths on the validity of WHO data. Findings indicate that UN and WHO homicide rates (n=56) differ in magnitude, but produce similar outcomes. The UN data produce more robust results and statistical models with less error. The WHO data are more stable and reliable over time, and better suited for longitudinal analyses. Analyses drawing on WHO data should not disregard unclassified deaths because their inclusion provides a more accurate estimate of the true number of homicides.     

Regulating data intermediaries: The impact of the Data Governance Act on the EU's data economy

As part of the European Commission's broader data strategy, the Data Governance Act (“DGA”) introduces a new regulatory regime for data intermediaries, which, inter alia, pursues the objective of increasing the competitiveness of the European data economy by bolstering trust in data-sharing mechanisms. Against this backdrop, we introduce data intermediaries and critically examine the DGA's related legal regime by testing its underlying assumptions and highlighting its intrinsic weaknesses and limitations as part of the broader EU data law puzzle. As a result, the paper brings to the fore certain contradictions between DGA's means and ends. Indeed, due to various questionable assumptions, the DGA imposes requirements that not all data intermediaries can satisfy and entrenches a specific techno-organisational form for data intermediation services that may turn out to be economically non-viable. Consequently, one must wonder whether the DGA's rules on data intermediaries are necessary and proportionate in light of the freedom to conduct a business. We furthermore uncover inconsistencies and loopholes between the DGA, the GDPR, the draft Data Act, and the Digital Markets Act. Overall, while the DGA's underlying efforts are laudable, its precise postulations may hinder the achievement of its underlying objectives due to two main factors. First its own internal limitations and incoherences, and, second, uncertainties and tensions resulting from its interplay with the broader EU data law framework.     

国际刑警组织DNA技术的应用和数据交换

国际刑警组织为了对各成员国的DNA检验工作提供技术支持 ,促进DNA技术的广泛应用 ,设立了DNA组。DNA专家组是DNA组的主要咨询机构 ,负责推荐DNA采样和证据采集、DNA数据库、质量控制、DNA技术培训等方面的指导原则。国际刑警组织还定期召开国际DNA用户大会 ,开展地区性DNA技术培训 ,以促进DNA技术的普及、应用和发展。本文主要介绍国际刑警组织在DNA技术方面开展的工作及推荐的一些指导原则。     

iCLIC Data Mining and Data Sharing workshop: The present and future of data mining and data sharing in the EU

Held at Southampton University's Highfield campus and hosted by iCLIC, an interdisciplinary core on Law, the Internet and Culture, the Data Mining and Data Sharing workshop brought together attendees and speakers from industry, government, academia and a range of disciplines alike. The workshop comprised two sessions, each with a keynote and an associated panel. The first session was chaired by Eleonora Rosati and dealt with copyright and database rights, data mining and data sharing. The second session, chaired by Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon, focussed on data protection, data mining and data sharing. The following report covers both sessions, associated panel discussions and the subsequent question and answer sessions.     

Estimating damages from price-fixing: the value of transaction data

We use a unique private data set of about 340,000 invoice positions from 36 smaller and larger customers of German cement producers to study the value of such transaction data for an estimation of cartel damages. In particular, we investigate, first, how structural break analysis can be used to identify the exact end of the cartel agreement and, second, how an application of before-and-after approaches to estimate the price overcharge can benefit from such rich data sets. We conclude that transaction data allows such a detailed assessment of the cartel and its impact on direct customers that its regular application in private antitrust cases is desired as long as data collection and preparation procedures are not prohibitively expensive.     

Deterrence and delinquency: An analysis of individual data

Is commission of crime deterred by fear of arrest? Individual self-reported data on the commission of three crimes are analyzed in relation to perceived probabilities of arrest for more than 3000 French-speaking teenagers of the Montreal school population in 1974. The crimes are shoplifting, drug use, and stealing an item worth more than $50.00. In addition to the effect of the individuals' perceptions of the probability of arrest for the three crimes, age, sex, and previous arrest record are also taken into account. The data are all categorical. A multivariate log-linear probability model is estimated in order to test hypotheses concerning the direction and magnitude of bivariate associations among the variables. We conclude that there is clear evidence of a negative association between the subjective probability of arrest for each crime and the frequency of commission of that crime. We also find some negative cross-effects of the perceptions of the probability of arrest for one type of crime on the commission of another, holding constant the direct effects.     

City police and drunk driving: Baseline data

Public attitudes, social movement organizations, and criminal justice laws regarding drunk driving have undergone significant changes in recent years. These changes raise important questions about police, who act as gatekeepers for the rest of the criminal justice system. Very little, however, is known about what police did in the years when drunk driving was viewed as a less serious social problem or about what police do now. I attempt to answer the first of these questions using data collected in the early 1970s, an important, largely unexamined period in the history of city police and drunk driving. The data provide a baseline for contemporary research. City police did not give contacts with drunk drivers a high priority, preferred to avoid these encounters, and made arrests on the basis of both legal and extralegal factors; extralegal factors were more important than legal factors. I examine the implications of the baseline data for contemporary policing.     

Bromadiolone poisoning: LC-MS method and pharmacokinetic data

Abstract:  Poisoning with superwarfarins, like bromadiolone, is a growing public health problem, and the mortality is high. Pharmacokinetic data on bromadiolone in humans are however scarce, and there are no reports following repeated exposures to bromadiolone. We have developed a method for quantification of bromadiolone in whole blood, using liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The analytical method is reported. Limit of detection was 0.005 mg/L and limit of quantification was 0.01 mg/L. The concentrations of bromadiolone in whole blood and plasma in serial samples from a 62-year-old woman were measured. The half-life of bromadiolone in blood was estimated to be about 6 days in the initial phase of elimination and about 10–13 days in the terminal phase. The mean plasma/blood ratio of bromadiolone was 1.7 ± 0.6. Stability testing of bromadiolone in whole blood samples after two cycles of freeze and thaw revealed that bromadiolone concentrations decreased.     

Investigating the legal protection of data,information and knowledge under the EU data protection regime

Information science distinguishes between the semantic forms/intangibles of data, information and knowledge. Data (e.g. an attribute of a data record in a relational database) does not have any meaning by itself. Information is data brought into context (e.g. data related to its primary key), and knowledge is the collection of information for useful intent (e.g. a database). This paper investigates the mapping of semantic forms in information science (i.e. data, information, knowledge) to correlative concepts in information law (primarily data protection legislation) with a view to investigating how such semantic forms are legally protected. The paper first proposes a data, information, knowledge, rules (DIKR) hierarchy in the context of relational database theory, and interprets this hierarchy with respect to data protection concepts. The paper then gives an in-depth discussion of the elements of the DIKR hierarchy (data, information, knowledge, deduced knowledge, induced knowledge) and how they relate to the EU Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC. These relationships are summarized in the form of a two dimensional correlation matrix. Finally the paper discusses how the semantic forms identified are protected under the EU Data Protection Directive, and gives insightful observations about the connection between information law and information science.     

Social science data and the APA

The wisdom of the American Psychological Association's submitting amicus briefs to affect social or legal policy is questioned by an analysis of the brief claimed to be a strong example of the effective use of social science data in the public policy arena; namely, the APA brief (Bersoff & Ogden, 1987) inLockhart v. McCree (1986). The data relied upon in the brief do not appear to support the assertions based upon them, and other data are adduced to develop the critique. It is concluded that it is mischievous for the Association to address itself to the courts by generalizing a data base well beyond its useful limits: The adversarial and scientific methods of establishing truth are in several respects antithetical.     

Trend and retrospection of legalization: Analysis on the data of legislation and litigations in China

As China’s society is developing towards modernization, the role of law is increasingly prominent. Due to the legalization progress, there will be a trend of more laws and litigations. Over the past 30 years, the problems of reform and opening up in Chinese laws have become apparent. While the quantity of legislation is rapidly growing, the issues appear as follows, i.e., how to ensure the quality of legislation and enforce the formulated laws effectively, how to tackle the contradiction between the limited resources and the ability to settle disputes, and the relationship between litigations and other means for settlement of disputes when the courts facing more litigations.     

Persistence of innovation: stylised facts and panel data evidence

This paper investigates whether firms innovate persistently or discontinuously over time using an innovation panel data set on German manufacturing and service firms for the period 1994–2002. It turns out that innovation behaviour is permanent at the firm level to a very large extent. Using a dynamic random effects discrete choice model and a new estimator recently proposed by Wooldridge (2005), I further shed some light on the driving forces for this phenomenon. The econometric results show that past innovation experience is an important determinant for manufacturing as well as for service sector firms, and hence confirm the hypothesis of true state dependence. In addition, the results highlight the important role of knowledge provided by skilled employees and unobserved individual heterogeneity in explaining the persistence of innovation.

Data protection act 1984: Security and accuracy of data

What is clear is that under the Act it is the responsibility of individual staff using and controlling data day to day to ensure that security and accuracy are maintained. The common practice of leaving printout in accessible areas where unauthorised persons may consult them is clearly in breach of the Act. Data users will also have to adjust to a less casual approach to some of their basic data, as well as maintaining a more disciplined attitude to obviously sensitive information.     

South Africa's PNR regime: Privacy and data protection

There has been an increase in the collection and use of Passenger Name Record (PNR) data for security purposes globally. Though academic analysis of this trend has remained focused largely on the North American and European context, the Government of South Africa has been using PNRs since 2014 for security purposes. South Africa was the first country on the African continent to implement such a regime and is one of only thirteen states internationally to link its Advanced Passenger Information (API) and PNR systems. While there has been little attention on South Africa's use of PNRs, an inquiry into the country's PNR practices reveals striking privacy concerns, including the potential permanent retention of PNR data and a failure of the state to fully disclose if, and under what conditions, PNR data can be shared with other states. While South Africa has implemented a PNR regime that is comparable to the highest international standards, the data protection requirements appear to be far less developed. In fact, South Africa's PNR regime remains enigmatic as all indications and mention of PNR are elusive and scattered across government publications. As such, this paper aims to provide an introduction into the elements of South African PNR use, including the implications as they relate to law, data protection, and privacy.