[OT] data privacy (was: Re: [ILUG] related Q...)

[Paul Jakma]

On Tue, 20 Mar 2001, Gerard J Keating wrote:

> but the "expectation of privacy" has limits.

of course... and the EU directives on data processing even cover
this, eg your right to privacy may not be extended to the point where
it affects the privacy or rights of others, etc..

read the links i posted to the 2 EU directives on data processing.
They're actually in reasonably plain english - not very heavy
legalese.

> You do not have a right to privacy in O'Connell Steet if you are
> shouting to someone across the road, or if you use a "speaker
> phone" in an open plan office.

but those examples would hardly be "personal".

> Recient court cases have held employeers liable for the content
> of personal email, where that content was racist and/or
> pornographic. Once/if this liability is firmed up, it will give
> them rights to monitor.

not really, because the EHCR is the ultimate decider, and it mandates
that it respect of privacy is a fundamental human right¹. this means
that any law that tries to erode this right may possibly contravene
ECHR and hence be challenged in the E Court of HR.

(eg the Brits are realising that Art. 8 of the ECHR and their new RIP
Act are quite probably incompatible.... if so it means RIP is
possibly untenable).

anyway... like i said, go googling... very interesting stuff. (and
what i've written is mostly paraphrasing bits i've found online,
mainly from US Human Resources and law journals/sites trying to give
US multinationals the terrible news of and lowdown on Europe's
strange notion of employees having privacy rights<shock>)

regards,
-- 
Paul Jakma	paul at clubi.ie	paul at jakma.org
PGP5 key: http://www.clubi.ie/jakma/publickey.txt
-------------------------------------------
Fortune:
The computer is to the information industry roughly what the
central power station is to the electrical industry.
		-- Peter Drucker


¹ obviously, as you pointed out there are limits... and AFAIK this is
where EU Directives, E Court of HR interpretation and local
legislation must come into play.  but if legislation goes too far
then a person can go back to the E Court HR and have it knocked down.