The Evolution of Privacy Laws in the Digital Age: Balancing Innovation and Personal Security

Abstract

In response to the apparent chaos surrounding new regulations, some people may feel the need to re-establish a more controlled framework for the current advance of technologies. The business’s response to this proposed retrenchment will depend on the regulatory environment. In order to establish a sound framework, the forces dictating the basic emergence of today’s new technologies might need to be analyzed. Moreover, it needs to consider the forces behind the current assessment of these same technologies and their consequences. The essay analyzes acceleration as a major force of technology driven change. These same forces seem to drive an obsession with control over the emergent new technologies and the consequences of their adoption. In this process the emergence of unintended consequences seems to be ignored. It reflects on structures and processes that might be increasingly at risk to totally unrelate unintended consequences owing to today’s acceleration societal environment. It concludes reflecting on the major question: What is going on? A framework for privacy and data protection regulation is proposed. Privacy and the closely related right to protection of data are the cornerstone of democratic rights in the digital world. The understanding of both concepts has changed due to the influence of new technologies and by a current evaluation of democratic rights in the context of digital technologies. Consequently, privacy and data protection regimes must be rethought.