Prominent privacy law experts, regulators and academics examine contemporary legal approaches to privacy from a comparative perspective.

This collection of essays explores current developments in privacy law, including reform of data protection laws, privacy and the media, social control and surveillance, privacy and the Internet, and privacy and the courts. It places these developments into a broader international context, with a particular focus on the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Adopting a comparative approach, it creates an important resource for understanding international trends in the reform of privacy and data protection laws across a variety of contexts. Written by internationally recognised experts, Emerging Challenges in Privacy Law: Comparative Perspectives provides an accessible introduction to contemporary legal and policy debates in privacy and data protection law. It is essential reading for academics, policy makers and practitioners interested in current challenges facing privacy and data protection law in Europe and in the common law world.

The goal of the book is to present the latest research on the new challenges of data technologies. It will offer an overview of the social, ethical and legal problems posed by group profiling, big data and predictive analysis and of the different approaches and methods that can be used to address them. In doing so, it will help the reader to gain a better grasp of the ethical and legal conundrums posed by group profiling. The volume first maps the current and emerging uses of new data technologies and clarifies the promises and dangers of group profiling in real life situations. It then balances this with an analysis of how far the current legal paradigm grants group rights to privacy and data protection, and discusses possible routes to addressing these problems. Finally, an afterword gathers the conclusions reached by the different authors and discuss future perspectives on regulating new data technologies.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. Presenting a concise, yet wide-ranging and contemporary overview of the field, this Advanced Introduction to Privacy Law focuses on how we arrived at our privacy laws, and how the law can deal with new and emerging challenges from digital technologies, social networks and public health crises. This illuminating and interdisciplinary book demonstrates how the history of privacy law has been one of constant adaptation to emerging challenges, illustrating the primacy of the right to privacy amidst a changing social and cultural landscape. Key features include: - Incisive analysis of the meaning and value of privacy and the ways in which legal, social and economic institutions respond to our understanding of privacy in contemporary society - A uniquely concise, contextual approach to privacy law, examining privacy as a constantly evolving social phenomenon and the legal implications of its mutability - Historical and comparative insights into privacy and data protection laws across the common law world. This richly detailed book is an informative and thought-provoking resource for students, academics and practitioners of privacy and data protection law. Its interdisciplinary insights will also appeal to those working in legal history, media and cultural studies, economics and political science.

The challenges faced by privacy laws in changing technological, commercial and social environments are considered in this broad-ranging 2006 examination of privacy law. The book encompasses three overlapping areas of analysis: privacy protection under the general law; legislative measures for data protection in digital communications networks; and the influence of transnational agreements and other pressures toward harmonised privacy standards. Leading, internationally recognised authors discuss developments across these three areas in the UK, Europe, the US, APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation), Australia and New Zealand. Chapters draw on doctrinal and historical analysis of case law, theoretical approaches to both freedom of speech and privacy, and the interaction of law and communications technologies in order to examine present and future challenges to law's engagement with privacy.

A clear, comprehensive, and cutting-edge introduction to the field of information privacy law. Features: A cutting-edge selection of cases and materials that explore issues of emerging technology and information privacy A conceptual framework that brings clarity and accessibility to the wide-ranging field of information privacy lawA useful reference source for any lawyer or professional working in the fieldThorough coverage of information privacy issues, includingmedical and genetic privacy, computer databases, employee monitoring, government data mining, electronic surveillance, anonymity in cyberspace, RFID tags, spam and telemarketing, Internet privacy, spyware, USA-Patriot Act, intelligence gathering and terrorism, consumer and financial privacy, privacy and the media, and moreStimulating pedagogy that raises provocative questions about new technologies and the development of the lawEx