The right to data in the context of digital ethics
Dr. Stefan Brink, Prof. Dr. Petra Grimm, reGr’n Dr. Clarissa Henning, Prof. Dr. Tobias O. Keber, Prof. Dr. Oliver Zöllner
Das Recht der Daten im Kontext der Digitalen Ethik
Nomos Verlag
1. Auflage 2024
187 Seiten
59,90 Euro
ISBN 978-3-7560-1716-4
Das Werk ist Teil der Reihe Schriftenreihe Daten – Recht – Digitale Ethik erschienen.
The book “Das Recht der Daten im Kontext der Digitalen Ethik” from the series “Daten – Recht – Digitale Ethik” combines data protection law with data security and digital ethics in a holistic approach.
In the first part, entitled “Orientation for digitality”, Tobias O. Keber sets out the connection in his article Compass for the digital society: Data protection and digital ethics and examines the role of ethics in the digital context. Data protection officers see parallels with data protection law, particularly in the section on “Ethics by Design” and “Digital Ethics by Process”. Against this backdrop, the demand that not only legal requirements but also ethical principles should be firmly anchored in technical and organizational processes is entirely understandable.
In their article “Data protection as an expression of digital freedom”, Stefan Brink and Clarissa Henning analyse the historical development of digitalization and its interaction with data protection and self-determination. Here, too, data protection officers quickly find an entry point and can easily agree with the position that digitization opens up a new dimension of reality and a path into the future, which is paved by data protection as a task of the state and society.
In “Digital ethics and the central leitmotifs of meaning, identity and connectedness”, Petra Grimm describes the growing relevance of digital ethics in the face of rapid digitalization and its far-reaching social impact. The presentation of ethics in the digital world and ethics of the digital world with the mapping of digital ethical issues is well received. Data protection officers, who rely on their cross-sectional expertise in their daily work, can easily agree with the call to bring together the perspectives of ethics, technology and law for a value-oriented design of digitalization.
The second part is entitled: “Protecting data – protecting children . Ethics of surveillance in the family and everyday life”.
The article “The significance of anthropomorphic attributions for trust in networked children’s toys” by Ricarda Moll is particularly revealing from the perspective of a data protection officer. Connected children’s toys, which inspire trust in children through human-like characteristics and encourage them to confide in the toy and reveal themselves, harbor considerable data protection risks. The devices also regularly collect sensitive data from children and pass it on for storage on external servers. It is to be expected that as development progresses, particularly the use of AI in this area, children will increasingly perceive these toys as social beings that can even influence their development. Advising on the risks of the potential for manipulation inherent in this in terms of data protection is likely to remain a task for data protection officers in the future.
The article “Media – Ethics – Education: Privacy as a value and digital maturity as an educational goal” by Nina Köberer addresses the challenges of digitalization, datafication and surveillance in childhood, the ethical significance of privacy and the educational mandate for digital maturity. The author calls for an orientation towards the democratic value system in digitalization and the development and use of new technologies and invites us to help shape the future. For data protection officers, it is important to emphasize the need for legal and technical standards to protect privacy and to point out the social responsibility to enable children to reflect critically and use media in a self-determined way.
In her article “The child’s right to privacy”, Julia Maria Mönig examines the need for data protection and the right of children to protect their privacy in the digital age. An age in which surveillance by technical devices is becoming ever more present. For data protection officers, the article offers a differentiated insight into the ethical and legal framework for the protection of children’s rights. It emphasizes that children, as individuals in need of protection, have a right to informational self-determination. The author concludes with the question of what kind of society we want to live in and makes it clear that taking a critical look at our own use of technology as well as monitoring children’s media consumption and Internet use is probably the right way to protect children’s privacy.
Part three of the book deals with the discourses on digitality.
Walter Krämer’s article “On legitimate interest” analyzes the concept of “legitimate interest” in data processing in accordance with the GDPR and offers an in-depth discussion of the balancing of interests. The work is useful for data protection officers as it offers practical criteria and legal advice for evaluating interests. Krämer addresses ethical and moral principles, legal precedents and decision-making aids that help to avoid typical mistakes in the balancing of interests. For the advisory and supervisory role of data protection officers, the work helps to objectively evaluate individual interests.
Daniel Maslewski’s article on “Synthetic AI learning data – requirements for a personal reference” offers data protection officers valuable insights into the use of synthetic data and its possible personal reference in individual cases in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation. Maslewski discusses various approaches to identifiability and takes technological developments into account, which is particularly helpful for advisory work. He illustrates how the risks of re-identification can be increased by newer AI methods.
The article “The Fediverse: Social media in transition” by Mike Kuketz is also very relevant for data protection officers, as it provides a well-founded demonstration of how the Fediverse addresses data protection risks as an alternative to commercial social media networks. The author points out the downsides of conventional social media due to surveillance capitalism and distinguishes the Fediverse with its decentralized structure and freedom from advertising. The author provides an initial overview of the platforms and protocols in the Fediverse and highlights its advantages. He also points out the existing possibilities for repairing social media.
Conclusion
The book takes a broad view and enables data protection officers to look at digitalisation from other perspectives in addition to their data protection perspective.
