Privacy in a New Global Context: Trapped Between Culture, Laws, and Technology

Saturday, February 20, 2010: 1:30 PM-4:30 PM
Room 1A (San Diego Convention Center)
Why did a serious government buy a stolen CD with millions of banking data from an individual? Who actually guards our sensitive data today, and who makes sure the guards do not misuse their position? Whom can we trust in the long run? The fragile global defense line of privacy started to collapse by a single incident in early 2008 under the pressure of the financial crisis, legal prosecution, and individual greed. And all of a sudden everything changed: Data were stolen and passed on, U.S. and European legal systems clashed, and profitable businesses were abandoned under political pressure. But how will we deal with this in the future? Will there still be a place for investors where their legal activities are safe from being disclosed to competitors? And how can a new global privacy balance be established -- instead of just making suspicious activities move to different places? All these questions need to be looked at from a global and interdisciplinary perspective. The symposium will show European, U.S., and Chinese approaches and explain how privacy, information security, and data control are linked from different cultural backgrounds, why and to what extent international laws have excavated privacy concepts already and what new risks are hidden in the globally interconnected information infrastructure. The symposium will also present results on interdependencies between the disciplines and point out areas with the most urgent need for research.
Organizer:
Stephan Lechner, JRC Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen
Co-Organizer:
Aidan Gilligan, European Commission, Joint Research Center (JRC)
Moderator:
Stephan Lechner, JRC Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen
Speakers:
Stephan Lechner, JRC Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen
Socrates Was Wrong: How Far Is Privacy on the Decline?
Claudia Cevenini, University of Bologna
When Law Meets Technology: Interdisciplinary Privacy Aspects
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