Abstract
Privacy and data protection are two fundamental rights. As complex concepts, they lend themselves to various interpretations aimed at protecting individuals. In this paper, I explore the concepts of ‘privacy’ and ‘data protection’ directly related to the protection of ‘identity’. I argue that the ability for privacy and data protection law to protect identity is being challenged by recommendation systems. In particular, I explore how recommendation systems are continuously influencing people based on what can be predicted about them, while the legal tools that we have do not fully protect individuals in this regard. This paper aims at breaching this gap, by focusing on the study of Porcedda, who examines four different notions of privacy related to identity under article 7 of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. Through the huge capacity for analytics that draws on a lawful combination of consent and non-personal data, this paper examines why data protection regulation does not, in fact, fully protect individuals. In this paper it is explored how the notion of privacy, understood as the protection of identity, is especially relevant to understand the limitations of data protection law, and I explore postphenomenology to help us better contextualize the relationship between identity and recommendation systems.
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Notes
- 1.
This gave ‘privacy’ the acknowledgement of a human right; and inspired the creation in 1950 of article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) of 1976 followed, which is the first legally binding instrument in Europe related to privacy, as it refers to an international treaty which was joined by 180 states, however it was not legally binding for the European Union.
- 2.
Specifically, the right to privacy in EU law was not legally binding until the Lisbon Treaty in the same year 2009.
- 3.
Broadly speaking, national laws started to emerge, not regarding the concept of privacy but data laws. In 1973 Sweden created the first national privacy law named ‘Data Act’, followed by the German Federal Data Protection Act of 1978.
- 4.
Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, OJ L 281, 23.11.1995.
- 5.
There will be new EU regulations such as Data Act or AI Act that will deal with non-personal data, but these are not enforced yet and refer to a data transformation by 2030. [25] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/64/digital-agenda-for-europe.
Data Governance Act has been approved in 2022 but will only be enforced in 2023. And it only applies to the facilitation of public data sources. See: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/data-governance-act.
In addition, especially relevant for this paper is the Digital Service Package that contains two regulations: Digital Service Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA), that will enter into force in 2024: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/digital-services-act-package.
- 6.
Article 4(1) GDPR.
- 7.
Article 6 GDPR.
- 8.
Herein lies another path, which merits further exploration in the future: could the fundamental right to ‘freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Article 9, EU Charter) also be considered applicable in protecting identity in the digital sphere? – However, in this paper I center the discussion on privacy and data protection as sufficient to understand this issue.
- 9.
Page 74 – Porcedda, M.G.: Cybersecurity and privacy rights in EU law: moving beyond the trade-off model to appraise the role of technology.
- 10.
The right to the protection of personal data as related to private life is also one at the core of the European culture of data protection since the German Constitutional Court claimed that we have the “right to informational self-determination”.
- 11.
Page 80 – Porcedda, M.G.: Cybersecurity and privacy rights in EU law: moving beyond the trade-off model to appraise the role of technology.
- 12.
Although Porcedda’s work mentions how the notion of ‘personal data’ does not account for new inventions of computerized systems and unprecedented (personal) data processing capabilities, such as transborder data flows (p.93).
- 13.
Page 83 – Porcedda, M.G.: Cybersecurity and privacy rights in EU law: moving beyond the trade-off model to appraise the role of technology.
- 14.
Page 87 – Porcedda, M.G.: Cybersecurity and privacy rights in EU law: moving beyond the trade-off model to appraise the role of technology.
- 15.
Taylor (1989) in Sources of the self argues that the fundamental interaction of identity is of love and family “the increasing possibility to choose freely one’s partners, which places love at the heart of the family, makes family life instrumental to the development of identity” (Idem).
- 16.
Page 88 – Porcedda, M.G.: Cybersecurity and privacy rights in EU law: moving beyond the trade-off model to appraise the role of technology.
- 17.
Page 90 – Porcedda, M.G.: Cybersecurity and privacy rights in EU law: moving beyond the trade-off model to appraise the role of technology.
- 18.
Page 91 – Idem.
- 19.
Page 97 – Porcedda, M.G.: Cybersecurity and privacy rights in EU law: moving beyond the trade-off model to appraise the role of technology.
- 20.
The field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) has traditionally considered technology as socially constructed e.g., Trevor Pich; Langdon Winner.
- 21.
Further investigations should account for new regulatory tools such as the AI Act and the influence or manipulation of recommendation systems.
- 22.
Page 100 - Porcedda, M.G.: Cybersecurity and privacy rights in EU law: moving beyond the trade-off model to appraise the role of technology.
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Acknowledgements
This paper has received valuable comments and support of my supervisors Rosamunde Van Brakel, Trisha Meyer and Rocco Bellanova; the previous work and inspiration of Maria Grazia Porcedda, and Paul de Hert.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 813497.
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Fernández Inguanzo, A. (2023). Privacy and Data Protection in the Era of Recommendation Systems: A Postphenomenological Approach. In: Bieker, F., Meyer, J., Pape, S., Schiering, I., Weich, A. (eds) Privacy and Identity Management. Privacy and Identity 2022. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 671. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31971-6_11
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