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Privacy Horizons: Terra Incognita

The year 2007 marks the 29th time that the world's data commissioners are meeting for their annual conference to discuss successes and failures in their efforts to promote data protection principles. Technology gets more powerful each year, making it harder for people to go about their daily lives without being watched by the state and private-sector actors. Welcome to Terra Incognita. At this year's conference, we are charting these unknown cyber-seas and the dangers they hold for privacy.

Data commissioners have always struggled to enforce privacy rights. Since the turn of the millennium, however, the challenge has become greater even as more countries embrace the concept of data protection and introduce privacy laws. Pressure for security measures that intrude into the private lives of citizens has grown with the global war on terror. All kinds of technologies data mining, geo-tracking, remote-sensing technology, video-surveillance linked to the World Wide Web — have now matured and are readily available around the world. Global information systems have also come of age, sending endless streams of data around the planet. The sun never sets on your personal information in this new world.

People everywhere want privacy, just as they want pure water, a clean environment, safe food, and steady work. Safeguarding privacy in our global information society, while at the same time assuring security in a world seized with fear over terrorism and information crime, is a tall order.