Guild, Elspeth --- "Data protection, privacy and the foreigner" [2017] ELECD 981; in Douglas-Scott, Sionaidh; Hatzis, Nicholas (eds), "Research Handbook on EU Law and Human Rights" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 380

Book Title: Research Handbook on EU Law and Human Rights

Editor(s): Douglas-Scott, Sionaidh; Hatzis, Nicholas

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781782546399

Section: Chapter 17

Section Title: Data protection, privacy and the foreigner

Author(s): Guild, Elspeth

Number of pages: 14

Abstract/Description:

Privacy and its regulatory counterpart, data protection, have traditionally been defined in the context of citizen’s rights within liberal democracies. The definition of privacy and the categorisation of personal data (and sensitive personal data) for the purposes of state protection while varying according to national sensitivities, nonetheless has been focused on and expressed in the language of the state-citizen relationship. A good example of this is the UK’s treatment of biometric databases. When a change of government in 2010 brought a coalition to power, a campaign promise to abandon a compulsory ID card system for British citizens complete with biometric database was delivered. The UK’s ID card database of British citizens which held fingerprints and personal details of ID card holders was destroyed on 10 February 2011. The relevant minister stated ‘Laying ID cards to rest demonstrates the government’s commitment to scale back the power of the state and restore civil liberties’. In the UK, the language of civil liberties is one used to describe the relationship of the British state with its citizens (not international human rights obligations or foreigners). This is evidenced by the fact that at the same time, the UK’s biometric database of third country nationals (persons who are neither British citizens nor citizens of the European Union), was enlarged, made compulsory and the use of the personal data held on it made available to a wide variety of authorities.