From information privacy to emergency privacy

Abstract

If before the creation and dissemination of computers made it possible to collect, organise and transmit an indistinct series of personal information, the right to privacy was linked to the concept of private property and the means for its protection and then, in a social dimension, came to coincide with the individual’s ability to control the circulation of information relating to him – a power that often is essential to maintaining social relationship and personal freedom, With the development of technologies and the use of personal data processing, as well as the possibility of their exchange and aggregation through the Internet and the creation of databases, the needs have evolved (and are evolving) even more significantly towards a collective dimension of information privacy. The innate mutability of the concept of privacy as a concept which is strongly affected by social, cultural and technological changes, pushes, in this way, to prepare a cautious legal schematization of the institution also in light of the emergency situation generated by the diffusion of the COVID-19. It is necessary, therefore, to ask whether the existing legislation can be considered sufficiently malleable to the changed framework of protection of personal data or whether the solutions adopted can be considered legitimate and proportionally oriented to respect the new “emergency privacy”.