The Right to Privacy and Personal Data: Some Considerations for Optimal Protection

The protection of privacy and personal data is a must for maintaining democracies and avoiding authoritarianism led by extreme surveillance. For the optimal protection of both rights, it is necessary to promote regulatory compliance, ethics, self-regulation, the strengthening of regulations, and of public bodies and institutions.

By Blanca Lilia Ibarra Cadena^[1]

I. INTRODUCTION

Privacy is the key to the most intimate details of our lives. We do not want to disclose certain information without our consent. In turn, privacy entails the protection of personal data. Safeguarding both rights is a must for maintaining liberal democracies and avoiding authoritarianism led by extreme surveillance from both private and public corporations.^[2]

Personal data has acquired a high value in the current economic system. Such value “is not based on the data but rather on its management, use, and relationship to other data.”^[3] This situation has caused large and medium-sized technology companies to profit from the overuse of personal data to predict users’ behavioral patterns.^[4]

There has been a broad discussion about social media, disruptive technologies, and the ongoing surveillance we all experience. I would first like to state a clear stance: I am not against technology and innovation; on the contrary, I am in favor of progress. I am aware that technological advances form a key part of the development and progress in areas as critical as medicine and personal saf