CSLS Seminar Series: Hilary Term 2009
Human Investigation and Privacy in a Regulatory Age
Convenor: Dr David Erdos, CSLS
Dr. Pat on Flickr
Background to Seminar Series
We live in an age of information where more and more data created by and about other human beings is freely and effortlessly available at the touch of a computer button. Many seem to revel in this new technological era: at last count, both Facebook and My Space had over 100 million active users each whilst over 100 million videos a day were being viewed on You Tube.
At the same time, however, laws have been enacted which increasingly regulate and restrict the collection and use of human data. Most advanced industrialized countries, especially within the European Union, have privacy or data protection acts which apply to all (digital) data which “relate” to an identified or identifiable individual. Courts themselves have expanded their interpretation of privacy protections available under both general human rights and the common law. The increasing proliferation of other legislation in areas as diverse as child protection, harassment and mental capacity may also have serious implications for the gathering of human data.
These legal changes have been mirrored by important changes in private control mechanisms including “self-regulation”. Universities and other research organizations such as the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) have instituted regulatory ethical review systems which apply to all research involving human participants or their data. Even journalists and the press have become ever more subject to formalized codes and regulatory systems such as the Press Complaints Commission (PCC). Arguably these developments are based on an unappealing bureaucratic and totalizing vision of regulation and pose significant threat to freedom of expression and inquiry. Contrariwise, it has been suggested that new regulatory protections are necessary in the digitalized world in which we now live. In any case, whichever of these perspectives has most validity, the gap between formal laws and policies and actual practice appears wide and, given especially ever more sophisticated technological developments, may even be increasing.
In the Hilary Term of 2009, the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at Oxford University convened a series of public seminars exploring these paradoxical and sometimes troubling developments. We hope that both the series itself, and the information posed here, proves relevant to a wide audience including not only academics from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds but also others such as journalists and bloggers.
Week 1: Monday 19 January
Professor Frank Furedi, Department of Sociology, University of Kent at Canterbury
“If it moves – Regulate! Society’s uneasy relationship with the informal”
Week 2: Monday 26 January
Dr Rebecca Wong, School of Law, Nottingham Trent University
"Social networking: the application of the Data Protection Framework"Powerpoint slides
Week 3: Monday 2 February
Professor Robert Dingwall, Director, Institute for Science and Society, University of Nottingham
"Motherhood and Apple Pie? Questioning Ethical Regulation in the Social Sciences and Humanities" Powerpoint slides
Week 4: Monday 9 February
Dr Renate Gertz, School of Law, University of Glasgow
“Quo vadis, FOI?” Powerpoint slides
Week 5: Monday 16 February
Antony White QC, Matrix Chambers
“Data Protection, Freedom of Expression and the Media” Data Protection & the Media Paper *** PODCAST LINK ***
Week 6: Monday 23 February NO SEMINAR
Week 7: Monday 2 March
Professor Charles Warlow, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh
“Proportionality - regulate the banks, keep off the backs of clinical researchers” Powerpoint Slides
Week 8: Monday 9 March
Professor Gavin Phillipson, Department of Law, University of Durham
“Media Freedom and Privacy under the Human Rights Act”
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Antony White QC (left) presenting paper on Data Protection and the Media
