Enforcing Privacy

This book demonstrates different approaches – regulatory, legal and technological – to enforcing privacy and data protection.

If regulators do not enforce laws or regulations or codes or do not have the resources, political support or wherewithal to enforce them, they effectively eviscerate and make meaningless such laws or regulations or codes, no matter how laudable or well-intentioned. In some cases, however, the mere existence of such laws or regulations, combined with a credible threat to invoke them, is sufficient for regulatory purposes. But the threat has to be credible. As some of the authors in this book make clear – it is a theme that runs throughout this book – “carrots” and “soft law” need to be backed up by “sticks” and “hard law”.

The authors of this book view privacy enforcement as an activity that goes beyond regulatory enforcement, however. In some sense, enforcing privacy is a task that befalls to all of us. Privacy advocates and members of the public can play an important role in combatting the continuing intrusions upon privacy by governments, intelligence agencies and big companies.

Contributors to this book – including regulators, privacy advocates, academics, SMEs, a Member of the European Parliament, lawyers and a technology researcher – share their views in the one and only book on Enforcing Privacy.