Data and privacy protection : online privacy in the light of behavioural targeting

Abstract

In the modern society that we live in, most of us consider personal information to be private. The line between the private and public spheres, however, is not clear, this is caused by different opinions concerning the their characterization and definition. However, the general agreement is that they exist, and there is information about each individual which is considered to be private. The definition of privacy has been multiple, with one group considering the term mean “non-interference”, and another group defining privacy as related to access to a person. Whether the term “privacy” is considered to be a state, condition on the one hand, or a claim or right on the other, the gap is not large between these definitions. Through the decades there has been a long-running debate over which definitions is the most correct one. This debate has been difficult to resolve, mainly because the main definition of privacy can be different from person to person, or from society to society. The privacy problem is often described by journalists, politicians, jurists and legal academics as, a problem created by the collection and use of personal information with the help of computer databases and the Internet. The Internet effects almost every aspect of our daily lives. The increasingly rapid changes in the technological and globalisation fields have changed the way in which personal data is collected, accessed, used and transferred. Online privacy is becoming the most pressing topic in the modern society. While some argue it is important to protect our privacy rights, others argue for freedom of information.