Privacy and ICT

Since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington of 11 September 2001, the question of privacy is very much back on the political and public agenda. In the USA, one of the first casualties of the 'war on terror' was personal freedom. Even in the Netherlands, politicians and law enforcement agencies have frequently cited privacy as an obstacle on the road to a safe and secure society.  

The individual's civil rights have long been protected by a swathe of legislation, including the European Convention on Human Rights and various national data protection acts. The discussions about privacy have largely ignored the precepts of individual freedom that such legislation was intended to safeguard. Instead, those discussions have been abstract and bogged down in legal arguments.  

The Rathenau Institute's 'Privacy and ICT' project ran from 1998 to 2003. One objective was to place the debate at a more 'human' level. The project not only examined the relationship between privacy and security, but also looked at the role of privacy within a global information society. Since the emergence of modern ICT, geographic boundaries are irrelevant when collecting, processing and exchanging personal information about individuals.