Positive and negative effects of data protection. The situation in the EU

Résumé ou Introduction

Within this paper I outline the positive as well as the negative effects of the current situation regarding data protection. Futhermore I briefly analyze the current regulations in the European Union.

It is the most controversial human right per se and the discussions about it are highly topical. No other human right is currently thus in the centre of the western world as this one. The right I’m talking about is the right of privacy. Due to modern technologies, demographic changes, change of political, economic or social conditions and other developments, it is increasingly threatened. It is therefore important to consider whether it may be necessary due to the recent developments around the terrorist militia IS to abandon this right in order to ensure the protection of human beings.

Monitoring, data protection and the glass man, these topics can be found almost daily in the media. Especially since several revelations around Wikileaks, the NSA and Edward Snowden, many people feel monitored. Often you open the mailbox and find advertising of companies, products, or travel-offers that you recently showed interest in. Additionally it is almost impossible to get around custom advertise when surfing through the World-Wide-Web. Google, Facebook and Co. are just some of many companies who know a lot of private things of their users. However, all these facts are in most societies merely associated only with disadvantages though surveillance can bring huge advantages to countries, especially nowadays.

As we are living in a time where violence and terror attacks are on the daily agenda it becomes more and more important that governments know what people, living in their countries, are doing. The recent attacks in Paris show again that it is a necessity to survey people in order to prevent more of these incidents. Therefore it is important that governments give more insight in what type of data they are exactly collecting and for what purpose they do so.