University of Edinburgh
Asian
Studies
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University of Edinburgh The Privacy Project |
About us |
The project bears the title 'Domestic and Global Perspectives on Privacy and Human Rights in Greater China, South Asia and Europe'. The topic of privacy has attracted great attention in Western countries and studies. There is a substantial body of research in English as wells as wide general coverage in the media, on issues such as data protection and celebrity privacy. Most of privacy-related research has been carried out in the US, however, and there is no centre for study of privacy in the UK or in other European countries. There is an even greater dearth of studies on privacy in Asia, so that it is common to hear it claimed that 'the Chinese [or Japanese or Hindus...] have no sense of privacy'.
Seen in a wider context, privacy is predominantly shaped by how individuals and communities understand their identity and by how they react and interact on it. The current stage of the project (Stage II) investigates local and individual awareness and practice of domestic privacy in different countries and cultures. In this it takes into account the role of current national and international political and legal structures in privacy practice. It aims to identify cross-cultural issues and understand attitudes regarding identity and privacy. Greater China, South Asia and Europe are the three main geographical areas of interest. Perspectives from the disciplines of anthropology, politics, law, history and language and literature studies help to define the interdisciplinary focus of the project.
Major themes include:
- the formation of perceptions surrounding sense of self;
- the understanding of private space and family space;
- diversity in the rhetorics of intimacy and exclusion;
- the existence of privacy rights;
- the role of human rights in protecting privacy;
- the impact of globalisation on local and communal identity;
- the context of privatisation, civil society and social capital;
- the understanding of gender and body in a diverse cultural environment;
- the impact of new technologies on perceptions of identity and privacy.
The project examines the formation and change of beliefs, traditions and developments in these areas and assumes their inter-connections across different disciplines. Given we are interested in how beliefs are affected, shaped and changed in the family and in how individuals understand their roles as persons and as members of a community or a nation, the project seeks to organise research that can expose these roles. Examples of such research may be found in studies on how community membership shapes perception of personal identity; the distribution of power in the community; the diversity of cultural reactions to contemporary social and legal developments in South Asian countries, when compared to the western understanding of privacy.
Stage II builds on Stage I of the Privacy Project, which consisted of an investigation into textual evidence for privacy awareness in traditional and modern China. Among the outcomes were a privacy website and email list, a survey of privacy among university students in China, and a workshop on concepts of privacy in the Netherlands in May-June 2001. This stage of the project concluded with the publication of the workshop volume, Chinese Concepts of Privacy, in July 2002.
News |
Public Spaces, Private Lives by Henri A. Geroux, 2002, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. The book is a brilliantly developed study of the public opportunities and civic solidarity and their replacement by a market-driven ethos that commodifies our lingings and exalts the selfish and encapsulated will of isolated individuals.
Why Privacy Isn't Everything by Anita L. Allen, 2003, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. The book offers and impressive and compelling analysis of the controversial link between privacy and personal accountability.
Contemporary Perspectives on Privacy by Stephen T. Margulis, 2003, Blackwell Publishing. This book defines and explores privacy as a social and psychological concept. It combines articles that discuss the ramifications of social policy, psychology and theory and provides an in-depth and insightful look at privacy as a pertinent social concern. For further details, see www.blackwellpublishing.com/book.asp?ref=1405116706
TOP UK sites 'fail privacy test'
Most top UK websites are breaking new rules which require them to do more to protect web users' privacy. See BBC news section at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3307705.stm [Posted 3 February 2004]
Alarm over DNA secrets in Australia
Laws protecting the DNA taken at birth from two million Victorians will be considered by the State Government amid fears of a new market in genetic information. For more information, please see the Herald Sun article. [Posted 1 July 2003]
Grant for project on data-sharing and privacy in multi-agency working
Professor Charles Raab of Edinburgh University, with Professor Christine Bellamy, Nottingham Trent University and Dr. Perri 6, currently King's College London but moving to Birmingham University, has been awarded an ESRC research grant of £220K over 21 months for a project entitled 'Joined-up Public Services: Data-Sharing and Privacy in Multi-Agency Working'. The project examines national policy interest in extending inter-agency sharing of personal data, explores factors promoting or inhibiting data-sharing to support joined-up public services, and assesses whether tensions with data protection and privacy principles are likely to be successfully handled. The criminal justice system and the health/social care interface provide the focus for several empirical case-studies of privacy and data-sharing in England and Scotland, complementing an examination of the development and implementation of policies at national levels. [Posted 1 July 2003]
Legal academic proposes that we sell our privacy
A senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh has proposed that businesses which make money out of personal information collected on-line from consumers should pay for it. The new proposals are designed to encourage people to shop more on-line and to return power over the information other organisations hold about them to the individuals concerned.
Despite the recent implementation of the European Commission’s Data Protection Directive 1995 in the UK, it is known that consumers still fear shopping on-line, due largely to insecurities about revealing private and financial details, and the threat of ever increasing junk-mail. Currently when people shop on-line with credit or store cards, information about their preferences, purchases and life style is usually stored for later use. Although consumers sometimes receive incentives such as loyalty vouchers for the information, these databases are often then sold by organisations for multi-million pound packages.
The value of privacy is being debated by an academic at the University of Edinburgh’s AHRB Research Centre in Intellectual Property and Technology Law. Lilian Edwards argues that organisations who use our privacy should be required to pay for it, through a type of royalty scheme to a central body. This should ensure that organisations collect only the information they require and use that information more carefully.
Lilian Edwards, Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh says: "Protecting our privacy is increasingly vital for everyone as we spend more and more of our life on-line. Instead of giving away valuable personal data for free, consumers should know what they are doing, and have a right to share in the profits if their privacy is violated as a result. Businesses making profits out of collecting personal data should be prepared to pay towards protecting consumers from spam, fraud and identity theft. Current EC data protection laws are not global, and do not solve most the actual privacy threats arising on-line."
Grant Campbell, a partner with the commercial law firm, Brodies, who specialises in technology law says: "Ensuring that information is used only for the purpose for which it was given is becoming ever more difficult, particularly with new technologies that allow people - with increasing ease - to gather and trade data which isn’t theirs to give away. Any suggestions on how to deal with this can only enhance our understanding of how valuable privacy really is." [Posted 1 July 2003]
Events |
We would like to point your attention to two forthcoming seminars of the Scottish Centre for Chinese Studies Research Seminar Series 2003/04, this term. Both seminars will start at 4pm.
Scottish Centre for Chinese Studies SeminarsFebruary 27th, 2004 by Dr. Rachel Murphy, Research Fellow, Institute for Chinese Studies, Oxford, on 'The public and the private in the gendering of population policy in rural China', Adam Ferguson Building, Room G.17 March 12th, 2004 by Dr. Harriet Evans, Centre for Democracy, Westminster, on 'Gender Public/Gender Private: transitions in gender discourses in contemporary China', Adam Ferguson Building, Room G.19 (Posted 17 February 2004) |
Richard Whitecross of the School of Social and Political Studies, University of Edinburgh, gave the spring term seminar of the Privacy, Family and Rights Programme. His topic was 'Bhutan: State Transformation, Law and Social Values'. The seminar introduced contemporary Bhutan, explored current dynamics between public and private and worked out parallels with South Asia.
Dr. Graeme Laurie of the School of Law, University of Edinburgh, gave the inaugural seminar of the Privacy, Family and Rights Programme. His topic was 'Genetic Privacy: a Challenge to Medico-Legal Norms'. The seminar explored the ethical and legal perspectives on the questions of a right to know and not to know genetic information.
The inaugural meeting of the Privacy Project Stage II was held at the University of Edinburgh on Wednesday 30 April 2003 under the auspices of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities. The official title of the programme is 'Domestic and Global Perspectives on Privacy in Europe, South Asia and Greater China' and the aim is to raise cross-cultural issues in privacy studies so as to increase awareness and understanding of privacy at domestic, national and international levels.
Links |
Council of Europe, Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950), available at http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/cadreprincipal.htm
Council of Europe, Committee of Ministers, Recommendation No. R(92)3 on Genetic Testing and Screening for Health Care Purposes, available at http://www.cm.coe.int/ta/rec/1992/92r3.htm
Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council the Processing of Personal Data and the Protection of Privacy in the Electronic Communications Sector, available at http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2002/l_201/l_20120020731en00370047.pdf
Directive 97/66/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Processing of Personal Data and the Protection of Privacy in the Telecommunications Sector, available at http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/1998/l_024/l_02419980130en00010008.pdf
Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Protection of Individuals with Regard to the Processing of Personal Data and on the Free Movement of such Data, available at http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/privacy/docs/95-46-ce/dir1995-46_part1_en.pdf
OECD, Guidelines Governing the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Data Flows of Personal Data (1981), available from http://www.oecd.org/
Protection of Human Genetic Information (a submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission and Australian Health Ethics Committee joint inquiry, December 2002) (PDF, 244Kb) available at http://www.privacy.vic.gov.au/dir100/priweb.nsf/content/5D37ECB57A98BDA7CA256C4D0019E8AD?OpenDocument
Report of Research on Privacy for Electronic Government (a report on privacy enhancing technologies for the international community), 2003, available at http://joi.ito.com/joiwiki/PrivacyReport
UNESCO Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights, November 1997, available at http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011/001173/117335e.pdf
Several research projects in progress to explore the relationship between law and technology. 'Privacy, Property and Personality' is one of the anchor projects of the Centre. Site available at http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/ahrb/
EPIC is a non-profit group that specialises in data protection. The site contains sections on material such as newsletters, tips for bookshops, on-line guides as well as archives at http://www.epic.org/
Privacy and Human Rights are an international human rights group based in London. Their site includes regular updates on developments affecting privacy rights. It also contains an extensive survey of privacy laws completed in 2003, see http://www.privacyinternational.org/
Contacts |
If you would like to join as a network member, to receive notification of news and events on the website, or if you require more information on our seminars, please email the project manager. We welcome feedback, news and additional information related to any of the project activities. To post us news, views, comments or papers, please contact, Nadja Kanellopoulou at nadja.kanellopoulou@ed.ac.uk.