The dissertation explores the field of information policy in a historic setting in Sweden, namely the early 1970s. At the time the question of privacy in relation to databanks, data systems and personal records was intensively discussed in all public media, starting in the fall of 1970 when a large-scale population census was carried out in Sweden. The political discussions and public debate resulted in the first Swedish data protection law, Datalag (1973:289), and was counted as one of the first of this type of national legislation in the world. The focus of the empirical study lies in the analysis of the lines of arguments, political reasoning and debates concerning privacy, data protection, information and technology in documents such as official reports, committee reports, proposals and parliamentary records and publications that were produced in the policy process preceding the new legislation. The public debate itself is investigated through the editorials and reports in the daily press of the time. A combination of discourse analysis and agenda-setting theory, as it is presented and used by the political scientist John W Kingdon, constitutes the theoretical framework of the thesis. The study is introduced with a discussion concerning discourse and language use in politics, and here Norman Faircloughs CDA, Critical Discourse Analysis, has been the main inspiration. Kingdon’s agendasetting model contributes with an interesting theoretical perspective on the social and political context of the discourses under study. The research questions also draw upon library and information science and theoretical work within the area of information policy, with issues concerning notions of information and technology, for example information as a public good versus private good in the market, and information as a free or restricted/protected resource. The main findings of the study imply that the political discussion and debate on databanks and privacy were heavily influenced by a public-oriented discourse focusing mainly on governmental authorities’ own use of information systems holding personal data. The new legislation, datalag (1973:289) could also be seen as a tool that sanctions governmental authorities’ extensive use and dependence on new data technologies and automatic data-processing in building up the welfare state and the growing public sector. The discourse was also based on a mixed notion of the new technology, perceiving data technology mainly as the “big machine” which contains a vast amount of personal information. This, at a time when the technology itself was transforming rapidly from bulky machines to personal computers. The practical effects of this discourse could be seen, for example, in the serious underestimation of the overall use of automatic data-processing in society as a whole, the use of which the legislation was set to regulate. When it comes to agenda-setting the public debate together with the activities of different actors in parliament had a major influence on the outcome of the work of the commission of inquiry that was set up. The public debate affected how the problem area of databanks and privacy was considered, but the commission formulated the actual legislation independently, without interference or adjustments by the social democratic government. / <p>Akademisk avhandling som med tillstånd av samhällsvetenskapliga fakulteten vid Göteborgs universitet för vinnande av doktorsexamen framläggs till offentlig granskning kl. 13.15 fredagen den</p><p>11 september 2009 i hörsalen C204, Högskolan i Borås, Allégatan 1 Institutionen Biblioteks- och Informationsvetenskap/Bibliotekshögskolan, Högskolan i Borås och Göteborgs universitet</p>

Thesis (doctoral)--Kiel Universiẗat, 2006. / Literaturverz. S. 291 - 313. Includes bibliographical references (p. 291-313).

Les données personnelles sont omniprésentes sur internet et leur importance économique est croissante. Pour les services de la société de l’information tels que les moteurs de recherche, les réseaux sociaux ou les sites de vente en ligne, elles sont devenues indispensables. Ces services apparaissent comme essentiellement gratuits pour les utilisateurs mais ont en réalité un modèle économique particulier : la monétisation des données personnelles des utilisateurs, en échange d’un accès gratuit. Le texte originel de la loi du 6 janvier 1978, dite « Informatique et Libertés », est le texte de référence en matière de protection des données à caractère personnel et permet d’assurer une protection étendue des données. Fondée par le principe du droit à l’autodétermination, cette loi permet d’assurer un traitement des données à caractère personnel, dans le respect du droit à la vie privée. Néanmoins, la loi dite « Informatique et Libertés » originelle ne prenait pas en compte l’apparition des nouveaux traitements de données sensibles en dehors du domaine médical. La directive Européenne 95/46/CE fait un apport, notamment en matière de protection des données biométriques. Cependant, on assiste au développement de nouvelles technologies qui permettent la collecte d’un nouveau type de données personnelles se rattachant à une personne et permettant son identification. Celles-ci sortent du cadre réglementé du cabinet médical. Les nouvelles technologies de l’information font apparaître un nouveau type de données difficile à définir. Ces nouveaux types d’informations sur la santé, générées et collectées directement par la personne concernée, font également l’objet de nombreux travaux au niveau européen. En effet, le Parlement Européen et le Conseil de l’Europe ont voté un nouveau Règlement visant à renforcer le cadre juridique en matière de circulation et de protection des données à caractère personnel. Le renforcement de la protection des données personnelles et des données de santé fait également l’objet d’un projet de loi, présenté par la secrétaire au gouvernement A. Lemaire, qui vise à développer une « république numérique ». Ce projet a notamment pour objectif de renforcer certains principes fondamentaux comme le droit d’accès ou le droit à l’information. Il développe un nouveau concept comme « l’habeas corpus numérique » qui vise à renforcer les prérogatives de chaque utilisateur et à maîtriser davantage les données personnelles, notamment dans le domaine de la santé. / Personal data is omnipresent on the internet and their economic importance is growing. For the information society services such as search engines, social networks, or online shopping sites, they have become indispensable. These services appear as essentially free for users, but actually have a particular economic model: the monetization of personal data of users in exchange for free access. The new data processing necessity an original governance by law.

Due to legal uncertainty surrounding the application of key provisions of European and UK data protection law, the public interest in protecting individuals’ informational privacy is routinely neglected, as are the public interests in certain uses of data. Consent or anonymisation are often treated as the paradigmatic example of compliance with data protection law, even though both are unable to attend to the full range of rights and interests at stake in data processing. Currently, where data processing may serve a realisable public interest, and consent or anonymisation are impracticable (if not impossible to obtain) the public interest conditions to processing are the rational alternative justifications for processing. However, the public interest conditions are poorly defined in the legislation, and misunderstood and neglected in practice. This thesis offers a much-needed alternative to the predominant consent-or-anonymise paradigm by providing a new understanding of the public interest concept in data protection law and to suggest a new approach to deploying the concept in a way that is consistent with the protective and facilitative aims of the legislation. Through undertaking legislative analysis new insight is provided on the purpose of the public interest conditions in data protection law, revealing critical gaps in understanding. By engaging with public interest theory and discovering the conceptual contours of the public interest, these gaps are addressed. Combined with the insight obtained from the legislative history, we can determine the reasonable range of circumstances and types of processing where it may be justifiable to use personal data based on the public interest. On this basis, and to develop a new approach for deploying the concept, other legal uses of the public interest are examined. The lessons learned suggest legislative and procedural elements that are critical to successful deployment of the public interest concept in data protection. The thesis concludes with the identification of key components to allow a clearer understanding of the public interest in this field. Further, these insights enable recommendations to be made, to reform the law, procedure and guidance. In doing so, the concept of the public interest can be confidently deployed in line with the aims of data protection law, to both protect and facilitate the use of personal data.

Thesis (M.S.)--Wake Forest University. Dept. of Computer Science, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-100).

Thesis (M. Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-107). Also available in electronic version. Access restricted to campus users.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-117).

No description available.

Thesis (MSc(CompSc) -- Bond University, 2001. / "A thesis submitted to Bond University in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science in Computer Science"-- t.p. Bibliography: leaves 124-125. Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.Sc.). / Written for the School of Computer Science. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/12/10). Includes bibliographical references.