[c]
The Governance of Privacy: Policy Instruments in Global
Perspective
Colin J. Bennett and Charles D. Raab
Ashgate
Publishing Limited
ISBN 1855214733
Cost. £49.95
Introduction
General introductions to the rules governing our knowledge society
are difficult. This is especially so in regards to the myriad ways in
which it is linked to laws that are linked to it. It seems that
a cademic practitioners are hesitant to offer future jurists
approximations - in place of the tools for the exercising of their
profession in a world which is different from that where the current laws
or legal decisions originated. These, in fact, are usually explained as
class contents. Additionally, we have the paradox that some teachers that
use Communication and Information Technologies (CIT) in their daily work
neither know their characteristics nor, obviously, their implications,
even though they are not blind to the fact that they can buy a book in a
bookshop in another continent, or read the news offered at that same
moment by any newspaper in the world, without moving from their office. In
spite of all this, they explain their subjects without using, for example,
cases resolved in Tribunals related to the societies in which they live
and only in a very small number of cases do they use Communication and
Information Technologies as auxiliary tools in their teaching.
This is relevant because the main objective of Bennett and Raab's work
is, precisely, that of introducing Political Science in the context of the
knowledge society, highlighting the existence of a deficiency in the
training precisely because there is no reference to its characteristics
and the policies regulating it (p. 4).
In order to carry out the introduction, they use, as an example, a
subject significant enough in the knowledge society, that of Privacy:
permanently discussed and regulated (from the mid sixties of the Twentieth
century, p. 14) but, at the same time, permanently blurred in the
monographics dealing with it (p. 26-30). In spite of this, the example is
appropriate enough for the authors’ intentions: it is sufficiently studied
in the literature: not only that of a technical character, and this from
the beginning of the implementation of the CIT, there are regulations,
policies, and is permanently being changed, with multiple aspects
appearing, as is happening with the technological change development; this
allows presenting this change through privacy: outstanding merit of the
work once and even when, in spite of the public to whom the work is
addressed (Political Science experts), have no interest in the same. It
does present to those interested in the CIT regulations a complex
discourse, or limited to one or the other aspects of said regulation. This
is so because the authors deal with aspects such as the lack of security,
the electronic signature, or the codes of practice with greater strength
and clarity than the works that are dedicated, monographically, to one or
another of these issues.
The Book
The book has three parts. The first deals with Policy Goals, the second
with Policy Instruments and the third one with Policy Impacts. Below the
most significant contents of each one of these parts are briefly
summarised.
The first part of the work (Policy Goals) is dedicated to the
description of what is understood by privacy and to the presentation of
the paradox that, in spite of everything that is talked about regarding
the scope of the action of the information technologies from practically
the beginning of their social use, there is no precision on what the
content of the expression is, nor doctrinal studies, such as opinion polls
or empirical works carried out on the matter. Very scarce, on the other
hand (pages 56 to 65), in spite of the evidence that there is a need to
rely on these studies in order to provide the expression of appropriate
contents since it seems different that the content given to the same by
virtue of the profile of those very few polled that have already answered
the same.
There is another paradox if we take a look at the existing instruments
(Policy Instruments) because, in spite of the vagueness of the privacy
expression, there are four types of specific instruments or mechanisms
that are used to start privacy: there are trans-national privacy
protection instruments: agreements signed by the European Council, but
also by the OECD and, of course, by the European Union. But not only
international instruments: there are also several legal mechanisms (laws)
of specific countries and ad hoc regulating agencies dedicated to the
implementation of the rules and regulations. There are self-regulating
mechanisms: codes of practice and even Technological Instruments, the
so-called PET (Privacy Enhancing Technologies), which are destined to
safeguard privacy. The work carries out a clear and very documented
description of each of these types of instruments, making clear the
important role that Governments have in the implementation of all these
instruments (p.156).
The last part (Policy Impacts), after magnificently highlighting
existing privacy: its instruments or basic contents, and its global or
interdependent character (pages 163-185), attempts to establish
quality criteria to observe whether existing instruments have it,
regarding the mechanisms destined to start up the defence of privacy. The
problems consists of the fact that the evaluation of the quality of some
instruments used to protect something like privacy is difficult, as
privacy is not clearly defined (pages 197-199).
The conclusion is that this is a complex phenomenon that is put into
practice in a complex way with a group of plural instruments and
mechanisms and not with one or other specific type of solutions (p.
228).
Conclusion
The book is good proof of the virtuality that the studies that deal
with complexity in a complex way have. In this case an attempt is made to
explain for Political Science the characteristics of the knowledgeable
society when explaining privacy ‘governance’. The richness of nuances of
the conclusions cannot be achieved with works that deal abstractly with
the laws or techniques. They are both unreal: they are not focused on the
context, which is what really matters: the characteristics of the
knowledge society. With this example we observe, on the other hand, that
when the matter is dealt with from a minimally founded, nuances and the
richness of a treatment connected to reality appear. This makes the book
interesting, not only for experts in Political Science but for those
interested in privacy. This, of course, independently from of the fact
that many experts in Political Science are not interested in its
contents.
Professor Fernando Galindo teaches law at the Universidad de
Zaragoza.
He can be reached at: <[email protected]>.
This is a Book Review published on 22 August
2005.
Citation : Galindo, ' The Governance of Privacy:
Policy Instruments in Global Perspective’, Book Review,
2005 (1)
The Journal of Information, Law and Technology
(JILT).<http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/jilt/2005_1/galindo/>.
