Protection of the right to privacy in the digital age reflection on the vietnamese context (luận văn thạc sĩ luật học)

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI
SCHOOL OF LAW

LÊ TRẦN NHƯ TUYÊN

PROTECTION OF THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY
IN THE DIGITAL AGE: REFLECTION
ON THE VIETNAMESE CONTEXT

MASTER OF LAW THESIS

HANOI - 2019


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI
SCHOOL OF LAW

LÊ TRẦN NHƯ TUYÊN

PROTECTION OF THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY
IN THE DIGITAL AGE: REFLECTION
ON THE VIETNAMESE CONTEXT

Specialized: Human Rights Law
Code: 8380101.07

MASTER OF LAW THESIS

Supervisor: Dr. NGUYỄN THỊ THANH HẢI

HANOI - 2019

CONFIRMATION

I assure you this is my own research. The data and results presented in
this thesis are honest and have not been published by anyone in any previous
work or thesis. The information referenced in the thesis is fully and carefully
cited by the author.
MASTER‘S STUDENT

Lê Trần Như Tuyên


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Throughout the writing of this thesis I have received a great deal of
support and assistance. I would first like to express my deep gratitude to my
thesis advisor Dr. Nguyễn Thị Thanh Hải of the Ho Chi Minh National
Academy of Politics for the useful comments, remarks and engagement
through the learning process of this master thesis. She consistently allowed
this paper to be my own work but steered me in the right the direction
whenever she thought I needed it.
I would also like to thank to my Master of Human Rights Law lecturers
for helped me gain a lot of knowledge in this important field. Special thanks
are given to the Faculty of law at VNU Hanoi and the Department of
Constitutional and Administrative Law for helping me during the course.
Finally, I must express my very profound gratitude to my parents and
my friends for providing me with unfailing support and continuous
encouragement throughout my years of study and through the process of
researching and writing this thesis. This accomplishment would not have been

possible without them.
Thank you.
Hanoi, August 18, 2019.

Lê Trần Như Tuyên


TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1
Chapter 1: OVERVIEW OF THE DIGITAL AGE AND THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY 7
1.1. The Digital Age .................................................................................................. 7
1.2. The Right to privacy ....................................................................................... 14
1.2.1.

History ........................................................................................................ 15

1.2.2.

Concepts ..................................................................................................... 17

1.2.3.

Right to privacy in the International Human Rights Law ....................... 23

1.3. The need for legislation of privacy in Digital Age ........................................ 30
1.4. Right to privacy laws in other countries ....................................................... 39
1.4.1.

European .................................................................................................... 39

1.4.2.

The United States data privacy .................................................................. 44

Chapter 2: THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY IN DIGITAL AGE IN VIETNAM................ 49
2.1. The impacts of Digital Age on privacy in Vietnam ...................................... 49
2.2. Legal framework on privacy in Digital Age ................................................. 57
2.2.1.

Privacy stipulated in Vietnamese Constitution ......................................... 57

2.2.2.

Privacy in some specialised laws ............................................................... 59

Chapter 3: DISCUSSION .............................................................................................. 72
3.1. Discussion on the challenges and gaps of the protection of the right to
privacy in Vietnam ................................................................................................... 72
3.1.1.

Conceptual challenges ............................................................................... 72

3.1.2.

Political challenges .................................................................................... 73

3.1.3.

Social and cultural challenges .................................................................. 75

3.1.2. Legal challenges ............................................................................................. 76
3.2. Recommendations ........................................................................................... 82
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................. 89
REFERENCES............................................................................................................... 91


INTRODUCTION
1. The rationale
The Right to privacy (also known as Privacy) is a fundamental human
right, essential to autonomy and the protection of human dignity, serving as
the foundation upon which many other human rights are built. The modern
privacy benchmark at an international level can be found in the 1948
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which specifically protected
territorial and communications privacy. Other international human rights
instruments contain similar provisions.
According to opinion polls, concern over privacy violations is now
greater than at any time in recent history [38]. The world is in the Digital Age,
no countries in the world could avoid the powerful impacts exerted by
innovative scientific achievements of the age. The technology achievements
bring about modern and convenient life, boost economic growth, encourage
the developments of medicine, education, and many other fields. However,
the downside of this miraculous leap is that humans have to face challenges of
their rights, including privacy, being violated. In the Digital Age, the aspect of
information/data privacy in privacy is the most vulnerable one. Meanwhile, in
many countries, laws have not kept up with the technology, leaving
significant gaps in privacy protections.
Vietnam is in the period of internationally integrating in many fields,
actively observing, and renovating updated technologies for the economic
development and people‘s wellbeing. New technologies such as AI, Big Data,
and IoT, on the one hand, bring about great opportunities, but on the other

hand, entails threats of violating personal privacy. In Vietnam, the trade of
personal data has happened effortlessly and publicly with low costs for years.
Although the leaking of personal data is a common situation in Vietnam, there

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have not been any recorded enforcement actions in relation to such leaking. In
reality, in Vietnam, people‘s awareness of deploying technology to protect
their privacy is still poor, which leads to the fact that the risks of their privacy
being violated are more impending than ever.
The problem of violating privacy in Vietnam is increasingly serious
and complicated, especially with the help of new technologies. Meanwhile,
the active roles of the State in carrying out the tasks of respecting, protecting,
and promoting privacy have not received adequate attentions. Together with
the Constitution, the legal system in Vietnam, in general, has set up a
fundamental basis for the protection of individuals‘ privacy values through
laws on certain fields. Nevertheless, these provisions mostly are about
protecting privacy in general life. Some specialised laws have introduced
some provisions, mostly in form of general principles which are not specific
enough, to especially protect individuals‘ personal information in the internet
or the digital world. The issue shows that Vietnam‘s legal frame on protecting
personal information on the internet and the digital world is weak. Hence, to
integrate with international policies in the Digital Age, it is high time for
Vietnam to adopt necessary and significant changes to keep in track with the
era‘s trends.
On a global scale, ensuring privacy and protecting data secrecy and
personal information in the Digital Age is a huge concern. But the term
―privacy‖, especially the data privacy in the Digital Age, is relatively new in
Vietnam. There are not many discussions and not much study on privacy, nor

is there a consistent definition of ―privacy‖ in Vietnam. It is important to
clarify the definition of privacy, the influence of digital technology on
privacy, the need for modify provisions on data privacy in specialised laws
and formulate a comprehensive law on privacy and data protection. These

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points need to be analyzed from the theory, context and legal practice to
provide information and social critics to identify fruitful avenues for future
privacy in the Digital Age.
Therefore, in the framework of the master‘s thesis in the Law of
Human Rights, the writer decided to choose topic ―Protection of the Right to
Privacy in the Digital Age: Reflection on the Vietnamese Context‖.
2. Research Situation
In recent years, there have been many projects and research work on
privacy which have been carried out under different angles and in different
areas, such as:
In Vietnam:
- Lê Đình Nghị (2009), PhD law thesis ―Quyền bí mật đời tư theo quy
định của pháp luật Việt Nam‖, Hanoi Law University.
- Thái Thị Tuyết Dung (2012), Monograph ―Quyền tiếp cận thông tin
và quyền riêng tư ở Việt Nam và một số quốc gia‖, Vietnam National
University - Ho Chi Minh City press.
- Nguyễn Thị Ánh Hồng (2014), Research topic ―Bảo vệ quyền đảm
bảo bí mật, an toàn thư tín, điện thoại, điện tín của công dân trong pháp luật
quốc tế và pháp luật Việt Nam‖, Legal Science Journal 2/2014, p. 51.
- Nguyễn Thị Huyền Trang (2014), Master‘s thesis ―Quyền được bảo
vệ đời tư trong pháp luật quốc tế và pháp luật Việt Nam‖, School of law –
VNU Hanoi.

- Lê Văn Sua (2016), Research topic ―Quyền bí mật đời tư cần được
hướng dẫn cụ thể‖, Vietnam Lawyers magazine 5/2016, p. 27.
- Hoàng Lê Minh (2016), Master‘s thesis ―Quyền bí mật đời tư trong
Hiến pháp năm 2013 và thực tiễn tại Việt Nam‖, Hanoi Law University.

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- Vũ Công Giao, Phạm Thị Hậu (2017), Research topic ―Pháp luật bảo
vệ quyền bí mật dữ liệu cá nhân trên thế giới và Việt Nam‖, State and Law
Review 2/2017, p. 67.
- School of law – VNU Hanoi (2018), Monograph ―Quyền về sự riêng
tư‖, National political publishing house, Hanoi.
In other countries:
- Bratman B. E. (2002), Research topic ―Brandeis and Warren‘s the
Right to Privacy and the Birth of the Right to Privacy”, Tennessee Law
Review, Vol. 69, p. 344.
- Solove D. J. (2002), Research topic ―Conceptualizing privacy‖,
California Law Review, Vol. 90, No. 4, p. 1094.
- Solove D. J. (2011), Monograph ―Nothing to Hide: The False Tradeoff between Privacy and Security‖, New Haven & London, Yale University
Press.
- Liu, Ximeng; Yang, Yang; Choo, Kim-Kwang Raymond; Wang,
Huaqun (2018), Research topic ―Security and Privacy Challenges for Internetof-Things and Fog Computing‖, Wireless Communications and Mobile
Computing journal 24 September 2018, p. 1–3.
These studies have provided great knowledge and information about
the theory, the position and role of law in the protection of privacy in Vietnam
in general, as well as preliminary references to the privacy, but until now,
there are not many work or study specifically on privacy and data privacy in
the Digital Age. Therefore, this is a systematic research and in-depth practice
of privacy - reflection on the Vietnamese context to propose orientation and

solutions to ensure the right to privacy in modern world.

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3. The Purpose and Mission of the Study
3.1. The Purpose
This project aims to better understand privacy in the Digital Age and
assess the actual situation of the application of this right in Vietnam. Based on
such

theories

and

practices,

the

thesis

proposes

solutions

and

recommendations to ensure human rights in general and customary privacy in
particular in the coming time.
3.2. Mission

In order to achieve the above objectives, the thesis must cover the
following tasks:
- Analyzing and clarifying theoretical issues about privacy in the
Digital Age, legal situation of this right under international laws, laws of
some countries.
- Analysis of the context and the legal situation of privacy in digital in
Vietnam
- Propose the orientations, solutions and recommendations to guarantee
implementation of privacy in the future.
4. Subject and Scope of the Study
Study on the impact of Digital Age in Vietnam on privacy and privacy
according to the current laws, including the 2013 Constitution, The 2015 Civil
Code and some specialised laws on privacy. Provide an overview of
protecting privacy in Digital Age and propose the recommendations to protect
the right to privacy in Vietnam
5. Methodology and research methods
The thesis applies an methodology in combination with method of
analyzing, synthesizing, comparing documents, which attaches the importance
to the summarization of context and laws on privacy, and at the same time,

5


inherits the results of the works of the earlier authors to clarify the objectives
and tasks of the thesis.
6. Scientific and practical significance of the thesis
The first step is to understand basic theoretical issues of the privacy and
the importance of protecting privacy in the Digital Age.
Secondly, analyzing the impacts on privacy of digital and the need for
legislation of privacy in Digital Age.

Thirdly, clarify the current situation of privacy and some urgent issues
in the implementation of protecting the right to privacy under Vietnamese
Laws.
Finally, attempts to find some suitable and feasible orientations and
solutions to contribute to protecting the right to privacy in a more effective
way.
The result of this study will provide scientific arguments on the right to
privacy to contribute to protecting this right in accordance with the laws in
new era.
7. Thesis structure
In addition to the Introduction, Conclusion and List of References, the
main content of this thesis consists of three chapters:
Chapter 1: Overview of the Digital Age and the Right to Privacy.
Chapter 2: The Right to Privacy in Digital Age in Vietnam.
Chapter 3: Discussion.

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Chapter 1: OVERVIEW OF THE DIGITAL AGE AND THE
RIGHT TO PRIVACY
The world is changing and changing fast. The concept of privacy is also
changing due to the development of digital technology. This chapter presents
the most general overview of Digital Age, the Right to Privacy and
International law and some national law on privacy, thereby pointing out the
need for legislation of protecting privacy before the impacts of new
technology.
1.1.

The Digital Age

Today, people are living in the Digital Age. The growth of digital has
opened up a new era of science and technology development, contributing to
the promoting the fourth industrial revolution (4IR).
Up until now, the mankind has experienced three major industrial
revolutions. The first industrial revolution which took place in the late
eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century is characterized by the use
of water energy, steam and mechanization of production. This revolution
opened the new era of mechanical production as well as mechanization for the
human beings. This was followed by the second industrial revolution that
happened during the latter half of the nineteenth century and early twentieth
century, when the electric motor, electronics, radio waves and radioactive
substances brought civilization as the productivity increased substantially
compared with that produced by the steam engine. The media such as
telegraph and telephone was invented in 1880 and immediately, telephone
was used around the world to keep in touch with others, the early twentieth
century witnessed a new power engineering field: the electronics and
electronic industry which opened a new era of electrification enabling the
development of other industries such as metallurgy, machine building,

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shipbuilding, military industry, transportation and chemical industry. The
Third Industrial Revolution, also known as the Digital Revolution, began
between the late 1950‘s and 1970‘s. It is the development of technology from
mechanical and analog to digital. The introduction of digital technology also
changed the way humans communicates, now via computers, cell phones, and
the internet. This revolution led way to the Digital Age [3].
The Digital Age is coupled tightly with the advent of personal

computers, but many computer historians trace its beginnings to the work of
the American mathematician Claude E. Shannon. In 1948, at age 32 and as a
researcher at Bell Laboratories, Shannon published a landmark paper
proposing, entitled ―A mathematical theory of communication‖ that
information can be quantitatively encoded as a series of ones and zeroes [22,
p. 261]. Known as the ―father of Information Theory‖ [21, p. 16–17],
Shannon showed how all information media, from telephone signals to radio
waves to television, could be transmitted without error using this single
framework.
Advances in communication technologies, devices connected to the
internet and data analytics are occurring at a much quicker pace than at any
other time in history. As a result, many believe we are now living through a
fourth industrial revolution, referred to as ―industry 4.0‖ [36].
In short, The Digital Age (also known as the Computer Age,
Information Age, or New Media Age) is a historic period in the 21st century
characterized by the rapid shift from traditional industry that the Industrial
Revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy based on
information technology. The technological advancements in Digital Age
impact not only economic but many other sides of society. It creates a
knowledge-based society surrounded by high technology. Besides the

8


fundamental role of the Internet, the focal point of the Digital Age is now the
Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data and so on.

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1)

Artificial intelligence

Artificial Intelligence at its most simple, is a sub-field of computer
science with the goal of creating programs that can perform tasks generally
performed by humans. These tasks can be considered intelligent, and include
visual and audio perception, learning and adapting, reasoning, pattern
recognition and decision-making [32, p. 3]. ―AI‖ is often used as an umbrella
term to describe a collection of related techniques and technologies including
machine learning, predictive analytics, natural language processing and
robotics.
The first work that is now generally recognized as AI was McCullouch
and Pitts‘ 1943 formal design for Turing-complete ―artificial neurons‖ [37, p.
16]. The field of AI research was born at a workshop at Dartmouth College in
1956.
AI is relevant to any intellectual task. Modern artificial intelligence
techniques are pervasive in many areas as Healthcare, Automotive, Education,
Finance and economics, Law, Military, Advertising, Art…
During the history of 60 years of artificial intelligence development and
machine learning, in order that the machine can self-study to improve the
capacity, machine learning is the most vibrant sector. Machine learning is a
computer science technique that allows computers to ―learn‖ on their own. It
has dynamic ability to modify itself when exposed to more data. Through
ingesting data, the machine is training itself by developing its own logic
according to the data it has analysed.
Recently, with the explosion of data and the results of digitizing and
connecting to the internet in many places, science data with the focus of data
analysis based on machine learning and statistics, is becoming the foundation
of the 4IR. However, the ability to analyze and handle the data volumes

10


automatically in any explosively informative environment may lead to the risk
of using illegal data which violates the intellectual property rights as well as
the right of personal privacy if it is not control properly. Considering the
ethics of technology and solving the privacy challenges will be essential to the
long-term success of AI. A balance between technological innovation and
privacy considerations will promote the development of socially responsible
AI that can assist in the creation of public value in the long term.
2) The Internet of things
The Internet of things is the extension of Internet connectivity into
physical devices and everyday objects. Embedded with electronics, Internet
connectivity, and other forms of hardware (such as sensors), these devices can
communicate and interact with others over the Internet, and they can be
remotely monitored and controlled [9]. The definition of the Internet of things
has evolved due to the convergence of multiple technologies, real-time
analytics, machine learning, commodity sensors, and embedded systems.
Traditional fields of embedded systems, wireless sensor networks, control
systems, automation (including home and building automation), and others all
contribute to enabling the Internet of things.
The concept of a network of smart devices was discussed as early as
1982, with a modified Coke vending machine at Carnegie Mellon University
becoming the first Internet-connected appliance, able to report its inventory
and whether newly loaded drinks were cold or not. The term ―Internet of
things‖ was likely coined by Kevin Ashton of Procter & Gamble, later MIT's
Auto-ID Center, in 1999, though he prefers the phrase ―Internet for things‖.
The Internet of things includes the peak of wireless technology, microelectrical mechanical system (MEMS), microservice and the Internet. The

11


extensive set of applications for IoT devices is often divided into consumer,
commercial, industrial, and infrastructure spaces.
One of the key factors that make up the IoT is the access and process of
data, the fact that organizations and individuals collect and store data from
multiple sources can lead to security vulnerabilities as well as infringe the
privacy rights. The IoT concept has faced prominent criticism, especially in
regard to privacy and security concerns related to these devices and their
intention of pervasive presence.
3) Big Data
The term ―Big data‖ has been in use since the 1990s, with some giving
credit to John Mashey for popularizing the term [42]. Big data usually
includes data sets with sizes beyond the ability of commonly used software
tools to capture, curate, manage, and process data within a tolerable elapsed
time. Big data requires a set of techniques and technologies with new forms of
integration to reveal insights from datasets that are diverse, complex, and of a
massive scale.
In summary, ―Big data‖ is a field that treats ways to analyze,
systematically extract information from, or otherwise deal with data sets that
are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data-processing
application software [8, p. 61–65].
Big data challenges include capturing data, data storage, data analysis,
search, sharing, transfer, visualization, querying, updating, information
privacy and data source. Data sets grow rapidly- in part because they are
increasingly gathered by cheap and numerous information - sensing Internet
of things devices such as mobile devices, aerial (remote sensing), software
logs, cameras, microphones, radio -frequency identification (RFID) readers
and wireless sensor networks.

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Research on the effective usage of information and communication
technologies for development (also known as ICT4D) suggests that big data
technology can make important contributions but also present unique
challenges to International development [50]. Advancements in big data
analysis offer cost – effective opportunities to improve decision - making in
critical development areas such as health care, employment, economic
productivity, crime, security, agriculture and natural disaster and resource
management. Additionally, user -generated data offers new opportunities to
give the unheard a voice. However, longstanding challenges for developing
regions such as inadequate technological infrastructure and economic and
human resource scarcity exacerbate existing concerns with big data such as
privacy, imperfect methodology, and interoperability issues.
There is no doubt that the Digital Age is the era of significant scientific
and technical development, enable the mankind to put a big step forward.
However, we should also be aware of the challenges in this era, especially the
difficulties in protecting human rights in general and the privacy rights in
particular.

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1.2.

The Right to privacy

The Right to privacy (also known as Privacy) is a fundamental human

right, essential to autonomy and the protection of human dignity, serving as
the foundation upon which many other human rights are recognized.
The Right to privacy enables us to create barriers and manage
boundaries to protect ourselves from unwarranted interference in our lives,
which allows us to negotiate who we are and how we want to interact with the
world around us. The Right to privacy helps us establish boundaries to limit
who has access to our bodies, places and things, as well as our
communications and our information. The right to privacy gives every person
the ability to protect themselves in difficult situations, especially in relation to
powerful people or organizations.
The rules of privacy give us the ability to assert our rights in the face of
significant power imbalances. As a result, privacy is an essential way we seek
to protect ourselves against arbitrary and unjustified use of power, by
reducing what can be known about us and done to us, while protecting us
from others who may wish to exert control.
Privacy is essential to who we are as human beings, and we make
decisions about it every single day. It gives us a space to be ourselves without
judgement, allows us to think freely without discrimination, and is an
important element of giving us control over who knows what about us.
To society, protecting privacy is also about creating and protecting the
foundation of the community. A community cannot exist if its members are
not protected from the infringement of privacy in particular and of human
rights in general. Protecting the privacy of each person contributes to ensuring
the democracy, civilization and stable development of the society. The right

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to privacy has become one of the most important human rights issues of the
modern age.

1.2.1. History
In spite of the fact that privacy only became a generally accepted right
in the 19th-20th century, privacy had existed long before this era. Privacy has
roots deep in history, it has its origins already in the ancient societies. Even
the Bible has some passages where the violation of privacy appeared in its
early form [34].

From a legal point of view, the Code of Hammurabi

contained a paragraph against the intrusion into someone‘s home, or the
Roman law also regulated the same question [41, p. 4]. These protections
mostly focused on the right to solitude. The idea of privacy traditionally
comes from the difference between ―private‖ and ―public‖, which distinction
comes from the natural need of the individual to make a distinction between
himself/herself and the outer world. The limits between private and public
differ according to the given era and society, which will cause the on-going
change throughout history of what people consider private.
In the ancient societies people had a relatively limited possibility for
self-determination as their (private) lives were strongly influenced by the
state. Plato illustrates this phenomenon in his dialogue the Laws, where the
complete life of the individual was determined by the state and its aims, there
was no place for individual freedom and autonomy. Thus, the book describes
a very extreme state (which in totality was never realised), some elements of
it came true in ancient societies, and the life of the individual was strongly
influenced by the public interests. In the Medieval Age there was no privacy
as a societal value in today‘s sense, the individual existed as a member of a
community, so his/her private life was affected by the constant ―monitoring‖
conducted by other members [1, p.257].

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The appearance of ―real‖ privacy relates to the transformation of these
small communities: the appearance of cities. During the 19th century the new
changes in the economy and in the society led to the transformation of the
way people lived and these new changes had consequences for privacy too, as
physical and mental privacy were separated and started to evolve in two
different ways. Due to urbanization, the population of cities started to grow,
and it led to the physical loss of privacy as people in cities had to live in
crowded places. On the other hand, citizens could experience a new ―type‖ of
privacy, as they ceased to live under the always watching eyes of their village
neighbours and the constant moral control set up by them. Another very
important change was the appearance and growth of (tabloid) newspapers,
which were a fertile area for gossip and photojournalism [7, p. 344]. It was
Samuel D. Warren and Louis D. Brandeis who first recognized the threats to
privacy caused by the technological and societal developments in their
famous article The Right to Privacy in 1890. In this paper the authors argued
that as political, social and economic changes occur in the society, the law has
to evolve and create new rights in order to ―meet the demand of society‖ and
ensure the full protection of the person and the property [53, p. 193]. They
recognized two phenomena that posed a threat to privacy: technological
development (namely instantaneous photographs) and gossip, which became a
trade in newspapers. Considering these changes, they were the first to demand
the recognition of the right to privacy (which they defined as ―the right to be
let alone‖) as a separate and general right. Although this early vague legal
concept did not describe privacy in a way that made it easy to design broad
legal protections of privacy, it strengthened the notion of privacy rights for
individuals, basically ensured protection against the unwanted disclosure of
private facts, thoughts, emotions, etc and began a legacy of discussion on

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those rights. In 1967 a new milestone was reached with the publication of
Alan Westin‘s Privacy and Freedom when he defined privacy in terms of selfdetermination: privacy is the claim of individuals, groups, or institutions to
determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent information about
them is communicated to others [54, p. 7]. Since then, the right to privacy has
become widely known and acknowledged, started to evolve and became a
fundamental human right in occidental societies.
1.2.2. Concepts
Privacy is a noun in the common language only originally means the
state or condition of being free from being observed or disturbed by other
people. Privacy has been legalized and became a right (The Right to Privacy).
Today, the term Privacy is understood by default to be a legally recognized
right.
Despite the fact that the claim for privacy in universal, there was no
universal definition of privacy could be created. The boundaries and content
of what is considered private differ among cultures and individuals but share
common themes.
There are many different ways privacy can be interpreted, and many
aspects of privacy exist. As already presented, Warren and Brande are defined
privacy as ―the right to be let alone‖ and Westin defined privacy as ―the claim
of an individual to determine what information about himself or herself
should be known to others‖. According to Israel law professor Ruth Gavison
―our interest in privacy [...] is related to our concern over our accessibility to
others: the extent to which we are known to others, the extent to which others
have physical access to us, and the extent to which we are the subject of
others‘ attention‖ [16, p. 423]. American jurist and economist Richard Posner
avoid giving a definition but states ―that one aspect of privacy is the

17


withholding or concealment of information‖ [33, p. 393]. American Edward
Bloustein argued that intrusion into privacy has a close connection with
personhood, individuality and human dignity [6, p. 973-974]. Máté Dániel
Szabó, Hungarian jurist argued that ―privacy is the right of the individual to
decide about himself/herself‖. Vietnamese professor Dr.Nguyễn Đăng Dung
defined privacy as the right of the individual to be protected from any
nosiness, ensuring that their action or secrecy is not exposed to the public [57,
tr. 34].
All these definitions state something very important about what we
should consider private. But there is a problem with all these definitions, their
scope is either too narrow or too broad. These authors use a traditional
method of conceptualizing privacy, and as a result their definitions only
highlight either some aspects of privacy, or they are too broad and do not give
an exact view on the elements of privacy. So, Daniel Solove created six
categories for these definitions according to which privacy is: (1) the right to
be let alone, (2) limited access to the self, (3) secrecy, (4) control of personal
information, (5) personhood and (6) intimacy [40, p. 1094].
The right to be let alone is the right of a person to choose seclusion
from the attention of others if they wish to do so, and the right to be immune
from scrutiny or being observed in private settings, such as one's own home.
Limited access to the self refers to a person's ability to participate in
society without having other individuals and organizations collect information
about them. Various theorists have imagined privacy as a system for limiting
access to one's personal information. Edwin Lawrence Godkin wrote in the
late 19th century that ―nothing is better worthy of legal protection than private
life, or, in other words, the right of every man to keep his affairs to himself,
and to decide for himself to what extent they shall be the subject of public

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observation and discussion‖ [19, p. 729–39]. Sissela Bok also said that
privacy is ―the condition of being protected from unwanted access by
others—either physical access, personal information, or attention‖ [4, pp. 10–
11].
Privacy is sometimes defined as an option to have secrecy. In various
legal contexts, when privacy is described as secrecy, a conclusion if privacy is
secrecy then rights to privacy do not apply for any information which is
already publicly disclosed. When privacy-as-secrecy is discussed, it is usually
imagined to be a selective kind of secrecy in which individuals keep some
information secret and private while they choose to make other information
public and not private.
Control of personal information is the claim of individuals, groups, or
institutions to determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent
information about them is communicated to others. Charles Fried said that
―Privacy is not simply an absence of information about us in the minds of
others; rather it is the control we have over information about ourselves.
Nevertheless, in the era of big data, control over information is under
pressure‖ [5].
Privacy may be understood as a necessary precondition for the
development and preservation of personhood. Jeffrey Reiman defined privacy
in terms of a recognition of one's ownership of his or her physical and mental
reality and a moral right to his or her self-determination.
The intimacy theory imagines privacy to be an essential part of the way
that humans have strengthened or intimate relationships with other humans.
Because part of human relationships includes individuals volunteering to selfdisclose some information, but with holding other information, there is a

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concept of privacy as a part of the process by means of which humans
establish relationships with each other.
Solove‘s categories can be understood as the main elements when it
comes to the content of privacy. In my view privacy is the right of the
individual to be let alone, limited access to the self, secrecy, control of
personal information, personhood and human intimacy.
Privacy protection is frequently seen as a way of drawing the line at
how far society can intrude into a person's affairs. The Global Internet Liberty
Campaign published a report in 2004, entitled ―privacy and human right An
International Survey of Privacy Laws and Practice‖ that provides details of
the state of privacy in fifty countries from around the world. According to the
report privacy can be divided into the following facets [18]:
1)

Information Privacy, which involves the establishment of rules

governing the collection and handling of personal data such as credit
information and medical records;
2)

Bodily privacy, which concerns the protection of people's

physical selves against invasive procedures such as drug testing and cavity
searches;
3)

Privacy of communications, which covers the security and

privacy of mail, telephones, email and other forms of communication; and
4)

Territorial privacy, which concerns the setting of limits on

intrusion into the domestic and other environments such as the workplace or
public space.
According to the International Human Rights Law, right to privacy is a
fundamental right but not an absolute human right. Every person to be
protected against arbitrary or unlawful interference whether they emanate
from State authorities or from natural or legal persons. But as all persons live

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