Global Privacy Protection

Book excerpt: The distinguished editors and contributors to this book have produced a valuable report of the state of privacy in a number of jurisdictions with their distinct legal and political traditions. It highlights the challenges we confront in our effort to protect and defend a central democratic ideal. Raymond Wacks, Computer Law and Security Review . . . This book is. . . a seminal piece of literature. . . Although the volume is about privacy law and the international politics of data protection, it is vitally important for the whole field of surveillance studies. It is easy to follow, and written in a way that nonlegal scholars can easily grasp. Nils Zurawski, Surveillance and Society Global Privacy Protection is certainly to be commended. Daniel Seng, Singapore Journal of Legal Studies Global Privacy Protection reviews the origins and history of national privacy codes as social, political and legal phenomena in Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, South Korea and the United States. The first chapter reviews key international statements on privacy rights, such as the OECD, EU and APEC principles. In the following chapters, the seven national case studies present and analyze the widest variety of privacy stories in an equally varied array of countries. They look beyond the details of what current national data-protection laws allow and prohibit to examine the origins of public concern about privacy; the forces promoting or opposing privacy codes; the roles of media, grassroots activists and elite intervention; and a host of other considerations shaping the present state of privacy protection in each country. Providing a rich description of the interweaving of national traditions, legal institutions, and power relations, this book will be of great interest to scholars engaged in the study of comparative law, information law and policy, civil liberties, and international law. It will also appeal to policy-makers in the many countries now contemplating the adoption of privacy codes, as well as to privacy activists.