PERSUASIVE TECHNOLOGY and HUMAN RIGHTS
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PERSUASIVE TECHNOLOGY and HUMAN RIGHTS LL.M Law and Technology Tilburg University Netherlands Panagiota Tokamani 2016 PERSUASIVE TECHNOLOGY and HUMAN RIGHTS Abstract The fast-paced development of technology throughout the last decades has been redounded, inter alia, to the emergence of a newly-introduced notion, stipulated as “persuasive technology”. Computing systems are designed in many cases having the intention to shape human attitudes or behaviors. Under these terms, the reasonable question arisen, from a legal perspective of viewing, is the following: to what extent may persuasive technology affect fundamental human rights established in European legal order and what the regulatory level of protection of these human rights is so for this possible effect to be mitigated. This paper aims at presenting the issues following this emerging question analyzing the legislative imprinting of the human right to privacy, the cornerstone for two inherent rights, the right to data protection and the right to autonomy. Conclusions are drawn with respect to the interaction of the aforementioned human rights with “persuasive technology” doctrine, examining the consistency of the privacy protective law, under the current legislative framework, with the policies used by persuasive computing systems’ technology. 2 TILBURG LAW SCHOOL Abstract Le développement rapide de la technologie au long des ces dernières décennies a activement contribué, inter alia, à l’émergence d’une notion récemment introduite, définie comme ‘technologie persuasive’. Des systèmes informatiques sont désignées, aux plusieurs cas, en ayant l’intention de formuler des attitudes ou comportements humains. Selon ces termes, la question raisonnable qui se pose, d’un point de vue legal, est la suivante: dans quelle mesure la technologie persuasive est-elle capable d’influencer les droits de l’homme fondamentaux, établis à l’ordre juridique européenne, et quel est le niveau de régulation de la protection de ces droits, afin que l’effet possible soit mitigé. Cette thèse vise à presenter les sujets qui suivent cette question émergente, en analysant l’empreinte legislative au droit à la vie privée, pierre angulaire de deux doits inhérents, le droit à la protection des données et le droit à l’autonomie personnelle. Les conclusions concernant l’interaction entre les droits humains ci-dessus et la doctrine de la ‘technologie persuasive’, sont tirées en examinant la consistence de la loi protectrice de la vie privée, dans le cadre législatif en vigueur, avec les pratiques utilisées dans la technologie des systèmes informatiques persuasives. 3 PERSUASIVE TECHNOLOGY and HUMAN RIGHTS Περίληψη Ο ραγδαίος ρυθμός ανάπτυξης της τεχνολογίας τις τελευταίες δεκαετίες έχει οδηγήσει, μεταξύ άλλων, στην εμφάνιση ενός νέο εισαχθέντος φαινομένου, οριζόμενο ως «τεχνολογία της πειθούς». Τα υπολογιστικά συστήματα σχεδιάζονται, σε πολλές περιπτώσεις, έχοντας την πρόθεση να διαμορφώσουν τις ανθρώπινες συμπεριφορές και τη στάση ζωής. Υπό αυτές τις συνθήκες, το εύλογο ερώτημα που ανακύπτει, από άποψη νομικής παρατήρησης, είναι το εξής: μέχρι ποίου βαθμού δύναται η «τεχνολογία της πειθούς» να επηρεάσει θεμελιώδη ανθρώπινα δικαιώματα, όπως αυτά θεσμοθετούνται στην Ευρωπαϊκή έννομη τάξη και ποιο είναι το κανονιστικό επίπεδο προστασίας ώστε να μετριαστεί αυτή η εν δυνάμει επιρροή. Η παρούσα εργασία θέτει ως στόχο την παρουσίαση των θεμάτων που απορρέουν από το ως άνω ανακύπτον ερώτημα αναλύοντας το νομοθετικό αποτύπωμα του ανθρώπινου δικαιώματος στην ιδιωτικότητα, ως ακρογωνιαίου λίθου δύο συνυφασμένων ανθρωπίνων δικαιωμάτων, του δικαιώματος στην προστασία των προσωπικών δεδομένων και του δικαιώματος στην αυτονομία. Καταληκτικά, θα προκύψουν συμπεράσματα όσον αφορά στην αλληλεπίδραση των ως άνω αναφερόμενων ανθρωπίνων δικαιωμάτων με το φαινόμενο της «τεχνολογίας της πειθούς» και στη συνέπεια του προστατευτικού νόμου για το δικαίωμα στην ιδιωτικότητα με τις στρατηγικές που ακολουθούνται από τα υπολογιστικά συστήματα της «τεχνολογίας της πειθούς». 4 TILBURG LAW SCHOOL Table of contents TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………. 5 CHAPTER 1 I.Introduction……………………………………………………………………7 1.1. Abstracted description of the topic………………………………………7 1.2. Overview of the paper……………………………………………………10 CHAPTER 2 II. Persuasive Technology- A newly introduced notion……………………...13 2.1. Introduction to the term………………………………………………...13 2.1.1. Persuasion…………………………………………………………...14 2.1.2. Technology…………………………………………………………..15 2.1.3. Persuasive Technology……………………………………………...17 2.2. Captology…………………………………………………………………18 2.3. Practical examples of persuasive technology…………………………...20 2.4. Conclusion………………………………………………………………...23 CHAPTER 3 III. Right to Privacy………………………………………………………………24 3.1. The notion of privacy………………………………………………………24 3.2. The aspects of the right to privacy………………………………………...26 3.3. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………..28 CHAPTER 4 IV. Right to Privacy and Persuasive technology………………………………..30 4.1. The legal context…………………………………………………………....30 4.2. Persuasive technology and e-privacy: Challenges………………………..34 CHAPTER 5 V. Right to Data Protection and Persuasive Technology……………………….36 5.1. The legal context……………………………………………………………36 5.2. Data protection and persuasive technology……………………………….39 CHAPTER 6 VI. Right to Autonomy and Persuasive Technology…………………………….43 6.1. The context of autonomy…………………………………………………...43 6.2. The right to autonomy and persuasive technology……………………….45 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………49 5 PERSUASIVE TECHNOLOGY and HUMAN RIGHTS LIST OF SOURCES…………………………………………………………….52 List of books……………………………………………………………………..52 List of articles……………………………………………………………………53 Table of legislation………………………………………………………………55 Table of case law………………………………………………………………...56 Table of sites……………………………………………………………………..56 6 TILBURG LAW SCHOOL CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1.1 Abstracted description of the topic Persuasion is “an attempt to shape, reinforce or change behaviors, feelings or thoughts about an issue, object or action”1. This is the most general definition which is used in the fields of psychological analysis of human characteristics and conducts. People can persuade, artifacts may persuade and lately technology is considered to persuade. This thesis focuses on persuasive technologies, and especially computing systems, with the aim to analyze the meaning and the extent of this term, and to probe, under the spectrum of legal order, this newly-introduced subject and how it may affect specific fundamental human rights. The term “persuasive technology” triggers various questions about the deeper analysis of both the two compositing words of this phrase. How can persuasion be achieved through or with the technology? Which faculties of technology can be identified as persuasive? Who wields this power of technological influence? What is the distinctive characteristic of persuasion in order not to be confused with deception or coercion? All these questions are attempted to be answered in the first place as an introductory note, so the reader may be familiar with the issue in question before further going deeper to the examination of its legal aspects in the following chapters. Within the context of this introduction to the main issue, a newly-emerged science, that is captology, will be used as a component for the comprehension of “persuasive technology” in terms of persuasive computing systems. Captology is the study of the area in which computing, operating systems and persuasion intersect2 and it constitutes an acronym originated from the term “Computers As Persuasive Technology”. By definition, captology focuses on the persuasive “power” that merely computing systems may bear. Accordingly, the present paper will content itself to narrow the wide range of persuasive technologies to the extent of “computing/operating systems as persuasive tools”, focusing on the cases of persuasion originated from computing systems and based on the reviews and analysis coming from the field of captology. The most recognized and thorough definition of “persuasion” in the field of technological development could be the one interpreting persuasion as “the interaction 1 B. J. Fogg, “Persuasive Computers: Perspectives and Research directions”, (1998), CHI 98, Stanford University, p. 225 2 B. J. Foggs, Persuasive Technology, Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do, (2011, Kaufmann Publishers), p. 5 7 PERSUASIVE TECHNOLOGY and HUMAN RIGHTS of computing systems in order to change behaviors and attitudes”3.The key point of persuasion in the debated case is intentionality; persuasion is not resulted as an accidental consequence of the occurrence of sequel incidents. Persuasion needs to imply an intention of changing attitudes of persuaded subjects. More particularly, the designed effects which are accrued by the planned persuading process may force users of technological equipment to register with their personal data in myriads sites on internet under the pretext of urgency for identification, to accept the terms of a service in order to use it with the assumption of their own safety or to be motivated under various apps to foster a specific way of life which will be controlled in total by these apps per se4. These examples raise concerns related to the consequences of persuasive technology’s prevalence with regards to the respect or violation of fundamental human rights related within the content of these practical examples. “Technology” is the second compositing word of the term “persuasive technology”. Pursuant to the theory of captology,