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Article
Three Scenarios for the Future
A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society, Moritz College of Law Ohio State University/H.J. Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management Carnegie Mellon University (2013)
  • Paul De Hert
  • Vagelis Papakonstantinou, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Abstract
Data privacy regulation has reached a crossroads: while three out of the four intergovernmental organizations that have released relevant regulations (the OECD, the Council of Europe, and the EU) are amending their respective texts, each one is implementing its own agenda. The Internet and cloud computing are making the need for international governance more evident than ever. Three scenarios may be foreseen: 1) the status quo remains, and technology intervenes to address public concerns; 2) the EU General Data Protection Regulation, which is expected to replace the EU Data Protection Directive by mid-2014, comes into effect and then goes on to set the international data privacy standard; or, 3) as suggested in this paper, an international data privacy organization, preferably a UN agency, is established to promote data privacy issues and warrant international data privacy governance, similar to how the World Intellectual Property Organization advances the purposes of intellectual property protection. The establishment of an international organization does not necessarily mean that a new, comprehensive international data privacy framework also needs to be introduced (at least at this stage). Instead, international instruments already in effect could be used. The globally accepted but perhaps under-used 1990 UN Guidelines for the Regulation of Computerized Personal Data Files are an obvious choice.
Disciplines
Publication Date
Summer 2013
Citation Information
Paul De Hert and Vagelis Papakonstantinou. "Three Scenarios for the Future" A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society, Moritz College of Law Ohio State University/H.J. Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management Carnegie Mellon University Vol. 9 Iss. 2 (2013)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/vagelis-papakonstantinou/26/