Privacy

Full course description

This elective course addresses the increasingly topical issues of privacy and data protection, their scope, limitations, and protection. Issues surrounding privacy and data protection are manifold. The advancement of technology leads to the collection, storage, and analysis of an abundance of (private) data: ranging from the applications we use, the calls we make, our search behaviour on the Internet and covert surveillance, to name but a few examples.

Content and meta-data are retained for surveillance purposes or analysed and sold for commercial purposes. For example, public authorities may take fingerprints or store DNA samples; intelligence services can store data obtained through CCTV surveillance in public areas; cameras for monitoring traffic might be used for traffic purposes and for criminal investigations. Another pressing issue is the balancing of privacy and data protection with other fundamental rights and interests, such as free speech, the right to property and transparency. What limitations does the law impose on data collection and, even more importantly, who supervises compliance with the privacy and data protection rules?

This course covers a panoply of issues. First, it aims to identify what is meant by notions of privacy and data protection and to explain how these concepts should be understood. Moreover, the course sheds light on the pertinent EU rules on privacy and data protection and identifies the relevant case law of the CJEU. As the notion of privacy is rapidly gaining importance in EU law, a large proportion of time will be devoted to the analysis of various EU legal sources and case law. Finally, although privacy and data protection are regulated by EU law, the compliance therewith is to be ensured at the national level through supervisory authorities. Consequently, the course will also cover this aspect of legal regulation of privacy and data protection.

Assessment methods

Closed book in person exam