The Governance of Privacy:

1
The Governance of Privacy

• Policy Instruments in Global Perspective
• (Ashgate Press, 2003)

2

• Colin Bennett, Department of Political Science,
  University of Victoria
• cjb_at_uvic.ca
• http//web.uvic.ca/polisci/bennett
• Charles D. Raab, University of Edinburgh
• c.d.raab_at_edinburgh.ac.uk

3
5 Hypotheses

• The Problems with the Privacy Paradigm
• The Shift from Privacy Law to Privacy Instruments
• The Emergence of the Privacy Regime
• The Trading-Up of Standards, not Results
• The Resilience of the Privacy Concept

4
The Privacy Paradigm

• Privacy is an Individual Right
• Privacy is something that we once had, that is
  now being eroded
• The source of the privacy problem is structural
• Privacy obligations stem from principles embodied
  in the laws of liberal democratic states

5
From Privacy Law to Privacy Instruments

• Transnational Instruments
• Regulatory Instruments
• Self-Regulatory Instruments
• Commitments
• Codes
• Standards
• Seals
• Technological Instruments
• Systemic
• State-Directed
• Instruments for Individual Empowerment (PETs)
• THE TOOLBOX, THE MOSAIC, THE MIX, OR THE REGIME?

6
The Privacy Regime

• One cannot separate the instrument from the
  agent that is using it
• The scope of application is less determinate
• Enforceability is complex and contingent
• Accountability and Liability are complex and
  contingent
• The Policy Community
• Public and Private
• National and Transnational
• More than stakeholders

7
Trading-Up?

• The inherent conditions for a race-to-the-bottom
  
• The evidence of a race-to-the-top or at least a
  walk-to-the-top
• Why?
• Distinction between private and public sector
  practices
• The Trading up of standards - not practices
• The complexity of the privacy pay-off

8
The Resilience of Privacy

• The Sociological Critique
• Privacy reinforces individuation
• Privacy does not address categorical
  discrimination
• Privacy conflated with security
• Privacy policy legitimates surveillance