Privacy protection as a case study in personal rights protection in Israeli law

Personality rights, by nature, reflect the culture and values of society. Thus, it is interesting to look back on the road that Israeli law has traveled since the early 1980s, when the right to privacy as such had no trace of protection in Israeli private law, through to the present, when it is protected by both the Protection of Privacy Law and the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty. Current Israeli case law, which shows that the balance between privacy and free speech in cases of publication of private information leans toward privacy, can be partially explained by historical, religious and cultural reasons. The increased privacy litigation in Israel forms part of an ever-growing protection of other personality rights in Israeli law, thus serving as a good example of this expanding trend.     

论隐私权的宪法保护——以自媒体时代为分析背景

自媒体在彰显言论自由之对,也打开了一扇偷窥公民隐私之窗.在宪法视野下,隐私权已经超越部门法的疆域上升为一项基本人权.在自媒体时代,侵犯公民隐私权的特征表现为隐蔽性、侵财性、便捷性和严重性,隐私权的传统法律保护模式遭遇了新的挑战.宪法对公民隐私权加以保护有其合理性与必要性.隐私权的宪法保护路径在于明确隐私权是一项列举的人权,强化违宪审查制度的贯彻执行,并通过部门法落实和实施该项权利,建立一个由宪法统领的、由部门法具体实施的、多层级和全方位的立体保护架构.     

A trojan horse goes to court: Bolger v. Youngs Drug Products Corp

In Bolger v. Youngs Drug Products Corp., the Supreme Court held that a statute prohibiting the mailing of unsolicited advertisements for contraceptives was unconstitutional as applied to Young's advertisements for condoms. The decision rested on a balancing of the first amendment's grant of free speech with the Government's interest in safeguarding an individual's privacy. The Court noted that the advertisements promoted the flow of information on contraception, and pertained to constitutionally protected private activity. This Case Comment argues that the Court's decision is sound and criticizes the view of the concurring opinion that shielding individuals from potentially offensive speech is a substantial governmental interest. The Comment concludes that the Court's decision expands upon precedent which established an individual's right of privacy regarding the use of contraceptives.     

基本权利的规范领域和保护程度对我国宪法第35条和第41条的规范比较

基本权利的规范领域和保护程度之间存在反比关系：规范领域愈宽，保护程度愈低；规范领域愈窄，保护程度愈高。我国宪法第35条规定的言论自由，其规范领域宽于宪法第41条规定的监督权，因此宪法对监督权的保护程度高于对言论自由的保护。基本权利对公权力裁量余地的限制，随着所涉及基本权利的不同而有所差异：公权力对言论自由的限制，需要提出充分的理由；对受保护程度更高的监督权的限制，需要提出更强有力的理由。宪法对监督权的高程度保护，体现了制宪者对民主监督的期盼和对民主建设的信心。     

从“无私”到“隐私”——论我国隐私权观念之变

我国侵权责任法对隐私权的确认不是一个普通的法律事件,还是一个昭示时代精神转变的历史事件。在中国文化历史中,从宣扬＂无私＂到习惯＂疑私＂再到接受＂隐私＂,这是对人的自由的肯定。自由是当代法律的精神所在,也是隐私权制度的核心价值,换言之,隐私权就是自由生活的权利。     

Reconstructing consumer privacy protection on‐line: a modest proposal

Problems with consumer trust and confidence in the Internet as a safe environment in which to shop, browse and associate are well documented, as are the correlations between this lack of consumer trust and fears about privacy and security online. This paper attempts first to show why existing legal and extra‐legal modes for the protection of privacy online are failing to protect consumers and promote consumer trust. In particular it critiques the European regime of mandatory data protection laws as outdated and inappropriate to a world of multinational corporatism and ubiquitous transnational data flows via cyberspace. In the second part lessons are drawn from the crisis currently faced by intellectual property in cyberspace, particularly in reference to MP3 music files and peer‐to‐peer downloading and useful parallels are drawn from the solution devised by William Fisher of the Berkman Centre, Harvard, in the form of an alternative payment scheme for copyright holders. Finally, the insights drawn from Fisher's work are combined with original proposals drawn from a comparison of the consumer–data collector relationship in cyberspace with the roles played by truster, trustee and beneficiary in the institution of common law trust. The resulting ‘modest proposal’ suggests that a ‘privacy tax’ be levied on the profits made by data collectors and data processors. This could fund no‐fault compensation for identified ‘privacy harms’, improve public privacy enforcement resources, provide privacy‐enhancing technologies to individuals, satisfy the desire of commerce for less data protection‐related internal bureaucracy and possibly create the conditions for better promotion of consumer trust and confidence. The uptake of electronic commerce would thus be significantly enhanced.     

Normative challenges of identification in the Internet of Things: Privacy,profiling, discrimination,and the GDPR

In the Internet of Things (IoT), identification and access control technologies provide essential infrastructure to link data between a user's devices with unique identities, and provide seamless and linked up services. At the same time, profiling methods based on linked records can reveal unexpected details about users' identity and private life, which can conflict with privacy rights and lead to economic, social, and other forms of discriminatory treatment. A balance must be struck between identification and access control required for the IoT to function and user rights to privacy and identity. Striking this balance is not an easy task because of weaknesses in cybersecurity and anonymisation techniques. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), set to come into force in May 2018, may provide essential guidance to achieve a fair balance between the interests of IoT providers and users. Through a review of academic and policy literature, this paper maps the inherent tension between privacy and identifiability in the IoT. It focuses on four challenges: (1) profiling, inference, and discrimination; (2) control and context-sensitive sharing of identity; (3) consent and uncertainty; and (4) honesty, trust, and transparency. The paper will then examine the extent to which several standards defined in the GDPR will provide meaningful protection for privacy and control over identity for users of IoT. The paper concludes that in order to minimise the privacy impact of the conflicts between data protection principles and identification in the IoT, GDPR standards urgently require further specification and implementation into the design and deployment of IoT technologies.     

Chilling effects and transatlantic privacy

Can the European and American privacy divide be bridged? Bilyana Petkova, in this issue, offers compelling reasons to be sceptical. One recent solution, advanced by Pierluigi Perri and David Thaw, is that common concerns about chilling effects can bridge that divide. However, their discussion of chilling effects was narrow and their analysis limited to procedural transatlantic convergence. This essay explores this idea with a more systematic and sustained discussion of chilling effects theory and research, while arguing that chilling effects does, in fact, provide possibilities for substantive transatlantic privacy. I argue that “chilling effects” is often treated as an ahistorical singular idea but there are, in fact, three separate paradigms of chilling effects theory, research and understanding: (1) speech; (2) privacy and autonomy; and (3) collectivist. I set out each and argue that the conceptualisation of chilling effects exemplified by the second paradigm—focused on privacy‐related chilling effects—offers a shared normative and theoretical foundation to bridge the transatlantic privacy divide. I also explore how new chilling effects theory and research can impact substantive and procedural transatlantic privacy efforts, including re‐thinking consent; empowering stronger judicial enforcement of privacy claims; and balancing competing claims in substantive proposals like the Right to be Forgotten (RTBF).     

The Liberal Value of Privacy

This paper presents an argument for the value of privacy that is based on a purely negative concept of freedom only. I show that privacy invasions may decrease a person’s negative freedom as well as a person’s knowledge about the negative freedom she possesses. I argue that not only invasions that lead to actual interference, but also invasions that lead to potential interference (many cases of identity theft) constitute actual harm to the invadee’s liberty interests, and I critically examine the courts’ reliance on a principle of ‘no harm, no foul’ in recent data breach cases. Using a number of insights from the psychology of human belief, I also show that the liberal claim for protection of privacy is strengthened by the observation that often the privacy invader cannot be held responsible for the influence on the invadee’s negative freedom.     

Multimodal biometrics for identity documents (MBioID)

The MBioID initiative has been set up to address the following germane question: What and how biometric technologies could be deployed in identity documents in the foreseeable future? This research effort proposes to look at current and future practices and systems of establishing and using biometric identity documents (IDs) and evaluate their effectiveness in large-scale developments. The first objective of the MBioID project is to present a review document establishing the current state-of-the-art related to the use of multimodal biometrics in an IDs application. This research report gives the main definitions, properties and the framework of use related to biometrics, an overview of the main standards developed in the biometric industry and standardisation organisations to ensure interoperability, as well as some of the legal framework and the issues associated to biometrics such as privacy and personal data protection. The state-of-the-art in terms of technological development is also summarised for a range of single biometric modalities (2D and 3D face, fingerprint, iris, on-line signature and speech), chosen according to ICAO recommendations and availabilities, and for various multimodal approaches. This paper gives a summary of the main elements of that report. The second objective of the MBioID project is to propose relevant acquisition and evaluation protocols for a large-scale deployment of biometric IDs. Combined with the protocols, a multimodal database will be acquired in a realistic way, in order to be as close as possible to a real biometric IDs deployment. In this paper, the issues and solutions related to the acquisition setup are briefly presented.     

Protecting Free Speech and Academic Freedom in Universities

Restrictions on speaking events in universities have been created both by recent student‐led efforts at ‘no‐platforming’ and by Part 5 of the Counter‐terrorism and Security Act 2015 which placed aspects of the government's Prevent strategy on a statutory basis. The statutory Prevent duty in universities includes, under the accompanying Guidance, curbing or monitoring events that could have an impact in drawing persons into terrorism. This article places the combined impact of Part 5 and student‐led curbs on campus speech in context by juxtaposing pre‐existing restrictions with the various free speech duties of universities. Focusing on speaking events, it evaluates the resulting state of free speech and academic freedom in universities. It finds potential violations of established free speech norms due to the impact of pre‐emptive strikes against some campus‐linked speech articulating non‐mainstream viewpoints. But it also argues that not all such speech has a strong foundation within such norms.     

Abortion in Australia: access versus protest

Currently in Australia anti-choice protesters' right to freedom of speech and freedom to protest is privileged over a woman's right to privacy and to access a health service safely, free from harassment, intimidation and obstruction. This article considers how this situation is played out daily at one Victorian abortion-providing clinic. The Fertility Control Clinic was thrown into the spotlight after the murder of its security guard by an anti-choice crusader in July 2001. Australian common law appears not to offer women protection from anti-choice protesters. By contrast, United States and Canadian "bubble" legislation sits comfortably with key constitutional rights. It would be a useful development if Australian governments passed legislation to ensure the rights, wellbeing and safety of Australian women accessing health services. Such legislation would be another step away from the misogynistic and androcentric values once central to our legislative framework.     

Reds Need Not Apply: Communism and the FCC, 1940-60

New communication technologies—particularly the Internet—have drastically complicated the problem of preserving privacy. As a result, a multitude of solutions for this increasingly complex area of the law have been put forth in recent years. This essay concludes, however, that changes in technology do not warrant altering the underlying constitutional balance that was arrived at decades ago in the tort law of privacy. The free speech limits on privacy law were imposed for good reason, and steps to protect the interest in the new online environment should not be ones that upset that careful balance.     

Privacy principles,risks and harms

The protection of privacy is predicated on the individual's right to privacy and stipulates a number of principles that are primarily focused on information privacy or data protection and, as such, are insufficient to apply to other types of privacy and to the protection of other entities beyond the individual. This article identifies additional privacy principles that would apply to other types of privacy and would enhance the consideration of risks or harms to the individual, to groups and to society as a whole if they are violated. They also relate to the way privacy impact assessment (PIA) may be conducted. There are important reasons for generating consideration of and debate about these principles. First, they help to recalibrate a focus in Europe on data protection to the relative neglect of other types of privacy. Second, it is of critical importance at a time when PIA (renamed ‘data protection impact assessment’, or DPIA) may become mandatory under the European Commission's proposed Data Protection Regulation. Such assessment is an important instrument for identifying and mitigating privacy risks, but should address all types of privacy. Third, one can construct an indicative table identifying harms or risks to these additional privacy principles, which can serve as an important tool or instrument for a broader PIA to address other types of privacy.     

著作权合理使用制度的人权法反思——基于必要性的考量

合理使用作为著作权制度中权利保护与权利限制的"安全阀",其适用范畴的任何伸缩,都可能在一定程度上触及言论自由权、受教育权、隐私权等人权问题。回溯知识产权与人权挂钩的历史事件,反思在著作权保护与人权保护同样强势扩张过程中所产生的权利失衡,进而指出合理使用制度的未来变革应当体现知识产权保护的人权属性无疑具有重大意义。     

'My tongue is mine ain': Copyright, the Spoken Word and Privacy

This article shows how under the present legislation in the United Kingdom copyright may exist in speech, in particular in interviews and conversations, provided that the words are recorded and constitute an original work. The argument is illustrated and supported by reference to reported cases from throughout the common law world, as well as to news stories and interviews with individuals ranging from Lord Denning to Michael Jackson. Issues arising from the collection of oral history are also discussed. It is further argued that, in addition to the internal analysis of copyright itself, such protection for the spoken word can be justified by the privacy and personality interests of speakers in the use of what they say.     

Legal identity for all

This paper examines Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 on legal identity for all. It considers notions of legal identity in international law and looks at legal frameworks for legal identity in Commonwealth member countries, including in respect of birth registration, national identity registers and cards, legal identity requirements for transactions and services, and new forms of digital identity. The paper examines specific legal issues relevant to identity, including privacy and data protection, identity theft and property rights. It concludes by reviewing the latest developments in concepts of identity, and applicable emerging technologies. It makes recommendations in respect of legal and policy reform that Commonwealth member countries may undertake with a view to meeting SDG Target 16.9.     

欧美金融隐私保护法律制度比较

欧美金融隐私权保护由于不同隐私保护体系而显得区别很大.欧盟综合性的保护方式为金融隐私权提供了较高的保护水平,但是实践中各国适用并不一致.美国单独立法的方式使得其金融隐私保护错综复杂,市场力量、行业自律也在保护金融隐私方面发挥重要作用.我国金融隐私立法应参照欧美法律和实践两个方面的情况.     

美国、德国隐私权宪法保护比较研究

美国和德国是世界上隐私权宪法保护比较成熟的国家,但是由于历史文化和法律传统的不同,两国隐私权的宪法保护在基本理念、具体含义、宪法保护方式和保护效力方面存在着很大的不同,比较研究两国隐私权的宪法保护对于我国隐私权的宪法保护的完善有借鉴意义。