Description: Internet Privacy Rights analyses the current threats to our online autonomy and privacy and proposes a new model for the gathering, retention and use of personal data. Key to the model is the development of specific privacy rights: a right to roam the internet with privacy, a right to monitor the monitors, a right to delete personal data and a right to create, assert and protect an online identity. These rights could help in the formulation of more effective and appropriate legislation, and shape more privacy-friendly business models. The conclusion examines how the internet might look with these rights in place and whether such an internet could be sustainable from both a governmental and a business perspective.
Brief description: Paul Bernal is a Lecturer in Information Technology, Intellectual Property and Media Law at the University of East Anglia Law School, where his research centres around privacy and human rights, particularly on the internet.
Review Quotes: "... an excellent piece of work which I'm sure will influence future thinking about the internet, its uses and abuses."
Raymond Wacks, Emeritus Professor of Law and Legal Theory, University of Hong Kong