'Round and Round the Garden? Big Data, Small Government and the Balance of Power in the Information Age' (Edinburgh School of Law Research Paper No. 2014/06) by Judith Rauhofer
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With personal data caught in a revolving door between private and public sector access, the privacy harms arising from the monitoring of individuals are more difficult to qualify than ever. Concepts of personal data that depend on identifiability permit practices where governments and companies can single out otherwise unidentified persons on the basis of their behaviour or interests. Concepts of harm that rely on evidence of material damage ignore the way in which access to data not only maintains but re-enforces existing power imbalances. This article will look at the notion of privacy harms from an EU perspective taking into account the discussions on the role of personal data in the context of the ongoing revision of the EU data protection framework
'Beyond Breach of Confidence: An Irish Eye on English and Scottish Privacy Law' by Daithi Mac Sithigh in (2014)
Juridical Review 27-36 is
based on comparative comments (with special attention paid to Irish law) presented at a seminar on breach of confidence and privacy.
It is first argued that a continuing uncertainty regarding the role of statute in relation to privacy is common to the development of doctrines in both England and Scotland, with similar anxieties present in other jurisdictions. In the absence of statutory clarity, the questions arising out of debate on the nature of the cause of action, and the consequences of variation in definitions of "privacy", are considered - with special attention to developments in Ireland and New Zealand. The relationship between the evolution of breach of confidence and the human rights framework is also noted. Finally, the prospects for law reform and/or convergence across jurisdictions in the United Kingdom are assessed.
