Gloria González Fuster

Key developments

• 🇫🇷 France adopts the Loi n^o 78-17 du 6 janvier 1978 relative à l’informatique, aux fichiers et aux libertés (‘loi informatique et libertés‘), cf. the legislative file.
• 🇦🇹 Austria adopts the Federal Act on the Protection of Personal Data (Data Protection Act) of 18 October 1978 (Datenschutzgesetz vom 18. Oktober 1978, BGB1., No. 565/1978), establishing a constitutionally protected fundamental right to personal data protection.
• 🇳🇴 Norway and 🇩🇰 Denmark adopt their first data protection laws; Denmark adopts different instruments for the private and public sectors.
• 🇪🇸 The 1978 Spanish Constitution establishes (in Art. 18(4)) that the law shall limit the use of computers to protect privacy as well as the full exercise of individual rights; cf. the debate on the drafting of the constitutional provision of 19 may 1978 (p. 2526 and ff.).
• ⚖️ The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rules in Klass and others vs Germany (judgment of 6 September 1978), noting that the Contracting States of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) do not ‘enjoy an unlimited discretion to subject persons within their jurisdiction to secret surveillance‘. The ECtHR, ‘being aware of the danger such a law poses of undermining or even destroying democracy on the ground of defending it, affirms that the Contracting States may not, in the name of the struggle against espionage and terrorism, adopt whatever measures they deem appropriate’ (§ 49).

Also this year

• 🇫🇷 Publication in France of the report by Simon Nora and Alain Minc L’informatisation de la société. Watch the recording of ‘Édition spéciale invite Simon Nora‘ (1978). On this report, see also: Walliser Andrée (1989), ‘Le rapport « Nora-Minc ». Histoire d’un best-seller‘, Vingtième Siècle, revue d’histoire, 23, 35-48.
• 🇩🇪 On 31 January 1978 the seminal Hessian data protection law of 1970 is repealed and replaced by the Hessian Data Protection Act of January 31, 1978 (GVBl. I p. 96). In December 1978, the Constitution of the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia is amended to include a recognition of the right to data protection (Art. 4(2): ‘Jeder hat Anspruch auf Schutz seiner personenbezogenen Daten. Eingriffe sind nur in überwiegendem Interesse der Allgemeinheit auf Grund eines Gesetzes zulässig.’).
• 🇬🇧 In the United Kingdom (UK) is published the Report of the Committee on Data Protection (Cmnd. 7341) (the ‘Lindop Report’).

• 🇪🇺 The European Commission publishes the Eurobarometer The European Public’s Attitudes to Scientific and Technical Development (1978).
• 🇪🇺 On 6 February 1978 the European Parliament holds a hearing on data protection in Brussels.
• The Council of Europe sets up a Committee of Experts on Data Protection (CJ-PD), asked to ‘prepare a convention on the protection of privacy in relation to data processing abroad and transfrontier data processing (1980)’, ‘carry out a study on data bank regulations, particularly for medical data banks (1978)‘, and ‘examine problems relating to the professional ethics of computer experts (1979)’. See the original terms of reference.
• 🇧🇪 From 7 to 9 February 1978 takes place at the Europa Hotel, in Brussels, a conference on ‘Transnational data regulation’ organised by Online. Read more here and here. The same Conference seems to be referred to as ‘The Brussels Mandate’ here.

• 🇺🇸 In New York, Online Conferences Ltd organises an International Conference on Data Regulation: European & Third World Realities.

• 🇵🇱 In Poland, Jan Kosik defends a dissertation on computers and population registers, inspired by a conversation he had in 1973 with Arthur R. Miller (in Salzburg): Technika komputerowa w ewidencji ludności a ochrona cywilnoprawna człowieka.
• The Committee of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA) and the International Federation of Data Organizations (IFDO) organise the first international conference on privacy law and social research, ‘Emerging data protection and the social sciences need for access to data’, in Cologne (Germany) (9-11 August 1978) (source) °.

Literature

• Ader Gérard (1978), ‘Secret et statistiques d’entreprises dans la communauté européenne‘, Economie et statistique, n°100, Mai, 85-87.
• Berleur, Jacques et Yves Poullet (1978), ‘Informatique et vie privée. Essai d’une approche comparative. Perspectives de solution‘, Journal des tribunaux, 18 février 1978, 109-117.
• ‘Computers and confidentiality‘ (1978), The British Medical Journal 2(6153), 1663–1663.
• Dalenius, Tore (1978), Information privacy and statistics : A topical bibliography.
• Eger, John M. (1978), ‘Emerging Restrictions on Transnational Data Flows: Privacy Protection or Non-Tariff Trade Barriers‘, Law and Policy in International Business, 10(4), 1055-1104.
• Kirby, Michael (1978), ‘Data Flows – Progress Report‘, Australian Computer Bulletin, October 1978.
• Kirchner, Jake (1978), ‘Terminology Seen Snagging Data Flow Efforts‘ and ‘‘U.S. Says It Won’t Support Draft Transborder Data Pact‘, Computerworld, 13 November 1978, 20-21.
• Kosik, Jan (1978), Technika komputerowa w ewidencji ludności a ochrona cywilnoprawna człowieka.
• McCarter, Pender M. (1978), ‘Update: information for the computer systems design professional (Special report: Transborder data flow’), 91-92.
• Norman, Adrian (1978), ‘Project Goldfish‘, IPC Science and Technology Press.
• Walsh, John (1978), ‘There’s trouble in the air over transborder data flow‘, Science 202.4363, 29-32.
• Wilk, Charles K. (1978), Selected Foreign National Data Protection Laws and Bills, Vol. 78. No. 19. US Department of Commerce, Office of Telecommunications.
• Wynn, H. P. (1978), ‘Freedom of statistical information‘, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A: Statistics in Society 141.1, 1-13.

In the media

• Pipe, Russell G., ‘To Allay Privacy Concerns: Europeans to Press for Data Flow Rules in ’78‘, Computerworld, 9 January 1978, 5-6.
• Beaumont, José F. (1978), ‘El poder informático grave amenaza para la vida privada‘, El País, 1 February 1978.
• Stessin, Lawrence, ‘How Private Are Personnel Files?‘, The New York Times, 9 April 1978.
• Westin, Alan F., ‘A New Move Toward Employee Rights‘, The New York Times, 23 April 1978.
• ‘Not 1984 for data banks yet‘, Press, 16 May 1978, 7.
• ‘Right to privacy at risk?‘, Press, 22 July 1978, 9.
• ‘Committee calls for access to records‘, Press, 1 November 1978, 19.

Back to 1977 / Forward to 1979