News and Research articles on Privacy

When ‘governance’ started rhyming with ‘government’, Turkish activists thought, "it’s time to organise an alternative conference alongside the official UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF)". Read this interview with three organisers of the Internet Ungovernance Forum, which took place in Istanbul on 4-5 September 2014.

The representatives of internet firms at this year's Internet Governance Forum referred to transparency, human rights and privacy. But when searching for those guilty of surveillance, they exclusively pointed to governments and not to their own policies.

The UN High Commissioner explains to Member States that privacy is a fundamental human right. But surveillance practices and legislation have yet to change.

The French parliament has just decided to set up a Commission du numérique (Committee on digital affairs). This could change the course of European internet policy.

In a recent high-profile court case on data protection and freedom of expression, the European Court of Justice has forgotten that publicness needs to be protected from privatisation, argues Lorena Jaume-Palasi.

Germany’s largest telecommunications operator for the first time on 5 May 2014 published a ‘transparency report’ on surveillance requests by German authorities. Kirsten Gollatz reveals how this new statitical input fits into the larger picture.

Volume 3, Issue 2

Privacy evaluation: what empirical research on users’ valuation of personal data tells us

Federico Morando, Nexa Center for Internet & Society, Politecnico de Torino
Raimondo Iemma, Nexa Center for Internet & Society
Emilio Raiteri, University of Turin
PUBLISHED ON: 20 May 2014 DOI: 10.14763/2014.2.283

A review of the recent economic literature aimed at empirically assessing internet users’ valuation of their personal data, suggesting possible limitations and pitfalls in the experiments, and drawing policy-oriented remarks focused on data portability.

KEYWORDS: Privacy, Personal data, Economic value

Bloggers' and online journalists’ experiences of defamation and privacy law suggest that new approaches to legal policy are needed in a digital media environment. This paper by Judith Townend draws on empirical research to analyse chilling effects in the UK.

KEYWORDS: Freedom of expression, Chilling effect, Defamation, Privacy, Journalism, Strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP), Hyperlocal

How can the European Union react to the revelations of mass collection of personal data by domestic or third country spying agencies? Researcher Carlo Piltz discusses the hot topic and proposes a way ahead.

Drawing on the example of the US surveillance operation PRISM and its impact on European citizens’ right to privacy, the author discusses what an authoritative human rights-based response could look like.

KEYWORDS: Privacy, Human rights, Data protection, Surveillance, PRISM, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

The legal and moral obligations of private online operators collecting and processing large amounts of data are unclear. Researcher Primavera de Filippi explains why.

KEYWORDS: Big data, Cloud computing, Intermediary liability, Predictive analysis, Open data, Quantified self, Privacy

If you do not see a policeman outside of your door, you are looking out of the wrong window. Read this scholarly essay as an analogy of privacy violations.

KEYWORDS: Blanket surveillance, Privacy

A new expert group on cloud computing is to ensure trust in the internet cloud. In the meantime, users can already find privacy-enhanced cloud offers.

Currently dominant cloud services raise challenges in terms of security, privacy and user autonomy. Decentralisation, advocated by civil society, may overcome some of the drawbacks.

KEYWORDS: Cloud computing, IT system architecture, Informational self-determination, Decentralisation, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Autonomy, Centralisation, Privacy

The revelations of Edward Snowden have created a sense of urgency to finalise the future framework for protecting privacy and personal data in the European Union. But how far has it progressed?

The American aversion to big government is matched by the German aversion to big data. How to best reconcile the two privacy cultures, is the subject of this analysis.

KEYWORDS: Privacy, Legal tradition, Transatlantic, Data protection, Constitutional law

Internet engineers and hackers clash in Berlin during the internet protocol conference IETF. Encryption experts from both camps agree on one thing though: privacy by default.

There are significant dangers in surveilling online communications unless the mechanisms and policies of surveillance are subject to strict and legally enforceable standards of transparency, oversight, and control.

KEYWORDS: Surveillance, Intelligence services, Base rate fallacy, Interception, Fundamental principles, Predictive algorithms, Privacy, Security, Content data, Communications data, Bundestrojaner, National Security Agency (NSA), PRISM, Tempora, Encryption, Liability, Transparency, Cyber security, Content, Censorship, Filtering

This week the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) meets in Berlin. In this guest commentary Fred Baker, longtime IETF chair, calls upon the technical community, legislators and researchers to make a stronger effort in advancing privacy online.

Privacy gets another push from recent surveillance revelations, but who shall provide it? A workshop on data protection in cloud computing prior to the upcoming meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force tries to get an answer from politicians and techies.

News and Research articles on Privacy

Internet freedom in Turkey: “It just keeps getting worse and worse”

How corporations divert focus towards government surveillance

UN High Commissioner claims privacy is a human right, but hopes dwindle on surveillance reform

French parliament forms a committee on digital affairs

'Google Spain case': court decision privatises the public sphere

Deutsche Telekom's 'surveillance report' builds on a trend

Privacy evaluation: what empirical research on users’ valuation of personal data tells us

Online chilling effects in England and Wales

‘National security’, a carte blanche for mass surveillance

Can human rights law bend mass surveillance?

Big data, big responsibilities

To have or not to have: the true privacy question

European Commission sets out to tame privacy issues in the cloud

Flawed cloud architectures and the rise of decentral alternatives

Data protection marathon in Europe

Bridging the transatlantic divide in privacy

IETF – Berlin meeting did not overlook mass surveillance

Necessary and inherent limits to internet surveillance

Actionable technical outcomes for privacy online

Joint forces for a cloud computing privacy manual

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