The Birth of Digital Human Rights, 1st ed. 2022 Digitized Data Governance as a Human Rights Issue in the EU Information Technology and Global Governance Series

This book considers contested responsibilities between the public and private sectors over the use of online data, detailing exactly how digital human rights evolved in specific European states and gradually became a part of the European Union framework of legal protections. The author uniquely examines why and how European lawmakers linked digital data protection to fundamental human rights, something heretofore not explained in other works on general data governance and data privacy. In particular, this work examines the utilization of national and European Union institutional arrangements as a location for activism by legal and academic consultants and by first-mover states who legislated digital human rights beginning in the 1970s. By tracing the way that EU Member States and non-state actors utilized the structure of EU bodies to create the new norm of digital human rights, readers will learn about the process of expanding the scope of human rights protections within multipledimensions of European political space. The project will be informative to scholar, student, and layperson, as it examines a new and evolving area of technology governance ? the human rights of digital data use by the public and private sectors.

Introduction: Digital Data as a Political Object.- Chapter 1: Digital Data Protection as a Human Right.- Chapter 2: The Early Years: National Origins of Digital Human Rights.- Chapter 3: EU-level.- Chapter 4: Digital Human Rights Expansion by Epistemic Actors, and the Role of Working Party 29.- Chapter 5: Exporting the digital human Rights Norm.- Chapter 6: The Future of Technology and Digital Human Rights.

Rebekah Dowd is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Midwestern University in Texas. Rebekah’s research focuses on human rights within data policy, the online behavior of individuals and states, and policy decision-making by European politicians. Dr. Dowd teaches courses in global studies, international relations, comparative and foundational politics, European politics, and international political economy.

Provides an overview of key concepts, debates, and historical precedence within digital governance Uses case studies to demonstrate how new legal protections for data spread in the European Union Discusses the broad implications of digital technology and privacy for social science and policymaking