What is Privacy as a Right?
When we often discuss privacy news stories involving personal data, a common, unspoken assumption is that an organization can either have data on me or they can’t. In this context, privacy is regarded as either being present or not being present. While this assumption is a good start, it is incomplete and can lead to bad policy.
In today’s article, we briefly discuss:
- What privacy as a right is
- Privacy in the context of other human rights
What Privacy as a Right Is
The freedoms we enjoy enable us to, ultimately, have a choice (or agency) in our lives. With the right to free speech, we can choose to protest, write a blog, retweet or not talk at all. The same goes with freedom of religion — many people are highly religious, others somewhat religions and some aren’t religious at all. Each person has the ability to choose.
Similarly, the right to privacy is the ability for a person to choose what they want to do with their data. Some people really enjoy sharing their lives on social media, others enjoy participating in online communities and some want to remain as anonymous as possible. Under this definition:
1. People are owners of their personal data
2. As with any other right, people have a responsibility to use their right to privacy responsibly
- For example, privacy rights should be exercised to do good, or at a minimum, not cause any harm.
3. Organizations have a responsibility to:
- Enable their customers or any person using their products/services to exercise their privacy rights
- Ensure each person can understand how their personal data will be used
- Give people control over all of their personal data (including data inferred about the person through analysis)
- Be excellent stewards of peoples’ personal data (a steward is someone who has a responsibility/duty to protect something, in those case personal data)
At the end of the day, people have a right to choose how their data will be used. Europe’s privacy law, GDPR, does an excellent job of doing this. I talk about GDPR here.
Privacy Within the Context of Other Rights
It’s important to know that no right lives within a vacuum by itself, even fundamental human rights. For example, two fundamental rights are the right to free speech and the right to security. If someone misuses their freedom of speech and puts another’s safety in danger (e.g., spreading false, inflammatory rumors), that person could be sued for libel.
The same applies to privacy. For example, if someone’s life is in danger or a person has been harmed, then authorities (through appropriate, legal mechanisms) can obtain warrants to inspect homes, property and personal data with the objective of protecting the endangered person.
So, when having discussions on how to legislate and enforce peoples’ privacy rights, keep in mind how privacy rights will fit into that process. In my opinion, GDPR has done a great job of balancing privacy rights within the context of other rights. Not a perfect job, but a good one nonetheless.
Conclusion
The right to privacy is an extremely important right. As countries around the world look to enact new privacy laws, understanding what privacy is and how it fits in with other rights will enable better and more effective laws. The EU spent years considering these issues, so considering aspects of GDPR can help guide the crafting of privacy legislation.
