The Waves of Information Technology, the Ebbing of Privacy and the Threat to Human Rights

Abstract

This article is a response to Professor Walter's article, "Digitizing Technology, Transforming Ourselves" (1999) 10 NJCL 375.

The author explores the extent to which emerging technology has undercut traditional notions of privacy, concluding that the existing legal framework is ill-equipped to protect individuals from this high-tech invasion of our basic human right to privacy. The constitutional protection of privacy is ill-defined and limited; statutory protections are more concerned with access to information than keeping it private, and only in Québec is privacy regarded as a matter for human rights codes.

Keywords: privacy, constitutional rights, technology, right to privacy, human rights