Privacy, the Internet, and National Laws

Privacy, the Internet, and National Laws

ABSTRACT

This article will explore the question of how the Internet undermines privacy and whether national laws can adequately ensure its protection. Recently, two main privacy protection models have emerged: an American model favoring strictly national protection and the self-regulation of corporations; and a European model, which includes provisions for the protection of data between countries and places tougher restrictions on how companies handle consumer information. By comparing both legal frameworks, the author argues that national laws alone are unable to provide privacy protection, and thus, the European model offers a better alternative.

In November 2010, Wikileaks, an international non-profit organization that had come into possession of hundreds of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables, began publishing these classified documents and forwarded them to five leading newspapers around the world. A few months later, Hewlett-Packard unleashed its new tablet computer in hopes of competing with Apple’s iPad. The much hyped event did not receive significant media attention, since the design was leaked online a few weeks earlier. More recently, individuals have voiced concerns with Facebook’s privacy settings, and have forced the company to review its policies.

Examples like these illuminate the growing importance of private data to governments, corporations, and individuals. Yet they are also an example of the global reach of the Internet, a technology which many believe undermines governments’ ability to guarantee privacy rights. If the Internet is indeed a borderless phenomenon, to what extent is it possible to assure privacy through national laws? I will argue that while national laws are important and necessary, they are limited in their ability to protect the privacy of all actors involved. To prove this point, I will first explore the long history of privacy discourse, as well as the new challenges posed by...