Some initial thoughts on the @HumanRightsCtte Right to Privacy and the Digital Revolution report, based on the press release (report link is not working). 1/n.
@HumanRightsCtte I am cautious about the "Wild West" metaphor. I know it is popular among some data protection practitioners, though certainly not all. Many major internet services are not located in territories which make enforcement difficult, like the lone Sheriff in the "Wild West". 2/n.
@HumanRightsCtte Some (especially the big ones) are located in states with serious regulatory capacity, like the US and states within the EU. The question is how to appropriately use that capacity. 3/n.
@HumanRightsCtte The press release makes important reference to some key issues with the right to privacy online: vast data collection, the limitations of user consent, directly or indirectly discriminatory data processing, and the enforcement gap (@DavidErdos). 4/n.
@HumanRightsCtte @DavidErdos The key recommendation (from the press release) is for the creation of a "single online registry that would allow people to see, in real time, all the companies that hold personal data on them, and what data they hold". 5/n.
@HumanRightsCtte @DavidErdos I am rather sceptical about this recommendation of the @HumanRightsCtte Report on the Right to Privacy and the Digital Revolution for three reasons. 6/n.
@HumanRightsCtte @DavidErdos First, that is an enormous database for the UK Government to control. A centralised database of all the data processing done by private companies online, made freely searchable made the UK Gov? It will come into collision with Article 8(2) as a disproportionate interference. 7/n.
@HumanRightsCtte @DavidErdos Second, I doubt it is workable. Large data controllers struggle to know, in real time, what they hold because they hold so much. Small data controllers, without the resources of large ones, struggle to know what data they hold. GDPR requirements will improve this, slowly 8/n.
@HumanRightsCtte @DavidErdos Third, I doubt such registration is enforceable. The enforcement gap is a key problem acknowledged by the report. Registration of data controllers alone, not all of their processing, was largely abandoned post-GDPR as expensive, hard to enforce, and very incomplete. 9/n.
@HumanRightsCtte @DavidErdos It would be interesting to hear @libertyhq, @OpenRightsGroup and @privacyint views on the JCHR Report. 10/10.
