|
E-Society Briefing Summary Document (pdf) Contact Information
Andrew Charlesworth |
ProjectsFederated Identities, 'Circles of Trust' & Decentred Regulation in M-Commerce Summary What will be the impact on data privacy regulation of the advent of new mobile commerce technologies? Will new regulatory strategies for achieving data privacy be required, and, if so, how might an effective balance be reached between the need to demonstrate an appropriate level of privacy protection, and the need to encourage technical and commercial innovation? This project, which was launched in November 2004 and runs for 18 months, aims to identify how the development of new mobile e-commerce business models will both affect, and be influenced by, data protection regulation, as new frameworks for mobile technology develop which permit commercial/consumer transactions to take place in circumstances to which existing regulatory practices cannot be readily applied. The research aims to advance the understanding of policy formation, regulatory practice, and commercial strategy in the area of data privacy regulation. This is achieved in part by means of the collection and analysis of data relating to the nature and scope of the 'regulatory-oriented conversations' in which groups within organisations, and groups of organisations, construct their understanding of and reaction to data privacy regulation and also an analysis of how these in turn inform the 'regulatory conversations' between regulators and regulated. This research will provide both regulators and regulated with an understanding of the nature and relative importance of the social, economic and cultural factors, which influence both regulatory processes, and the responses to those processes. The research will assess the likelihood of the existing data protection regulatory regime effectively and efficiently addressing the realistic risks to data subjects in developing technology-driven commercial environments, with specific reference to developing m-commerce architectures. This aims to highlight likely deficiencies with the current regime and assess the positive and negative aspects of possible solutions to those deficiencies. This technical and legal assessment will be of importance to legislators, regulators, commercial associations and organisations when formulating their approaches to data privacy regulatory needs over the long term. The key objective is thus to formulate a model regulatory instrument mix with potential international application, that can on the one hand address the public interest in data privacy and avoid or minimise the harmful effects of industry capture whilst on the other provide public and private organisations with an environment in which technological innovation is encouraged, and in which they can clearly assess their regulatory and trading risks and make provision for rational investments and insurance strategies. Publications Charlesworth, A.J. (2006) "The Future of Data Protection
Law", Information |