Socialinių inovacijų doktorantūros mokykla / Social Innovations Doctoral School

Bepiločių orlaivių naudojimas komerciniais tikslais kelia naujus iššūkius privatumo apsaugai, nes šios technologijos savybės – nepastebimumas, stebėjimo intensyvumas ir galimybė rinkti duomenis iš įvairių kampų – gali lemti masinę stebėseną ir privatumo pažeidimus. Ši disertacija analizuoja teisinius komercinių bepiločių orlaivių naudojimo aspektus, siekdama atskleisti, kaip suderinti technologinę pažangą su privatumo apsauga. Tyrimas apima ES, JAV ir tarptautinius teisės aktus, taip pat teismų praktiką, identifikuojant esamos teisinės bazės trūkumus. Disertacijoje atskleidžiama, kad dabartiniai teisės aktai nepakankamai reguliuoja privatumo apsaugą, ypač viešojoje erdvėje, kur bepiločiai orlaiviai gali būti naudojami slaptai stebėti asmenis. Tyrimas parodo, kad privatumo apsauga, paremta individo sutikimu, yra neveiksminga, nes žmonės dažnai nesupranta savo pasirinkimo pasekmių arba neturi realios galimybės atsisakyti duomenų rinkimo. Siekiant efektyvesnės privatumo apsaugos, disertacijoje siūlomas paternalistinis reguliavimo modelis, pagrįstas ribų valdymo teorija. Šis modelis leistų užtikrinti, kad privatumo apsauga nebūtų priklausoma nuo individo iniciatyvos, o būtų grindžiamas privalomomis elgesio taisyklėmis. Šis darbas yra reikšmingas mokslinis indėlis, kuris gali tapti pagrindu tolesniam teisiniam reguliavimui, teismų praktikai ir moksliniams tyrimams, susijusiems su naujų technologijų ir privatumo santykiu.

This thesis investigates how individuals can develop, exercise, and maintain autonomy and freedom in the presence of information technology. It is particularly interested in how information technology can impose autonomy constraints. The first part identifies a problem with current autonomy discourse: There is no agreed upon object of reference when bemoaning loss of or risk to an individual’s autonomy. Here, thesis introduces a pragmatic conceptual framework to classify autonomy constraints. In essence, the proposed framework divides autonomy in three categories: intrinsic autonomy, relational autonomy and informational autonomy. The second part of the thesis investigates the role of information technology in enabling and facilitating autonomy constraints. The analysis identifies eleven characteristics of information technology, as it is embedded in society, so-called vectors of influence, that constitute risk to an individual’s autonomy in a substantial way. These vectors are assigned to three sets that correspond to the general sphere of the information transfer process to which they can be attributed to, namely domain-specific vectors, agent-specific vectors and information recipient-specific vectors. The third part of the thesis investigates selected ethical and legal implications of autonomy constraints imposed by information technology. It shows the utility of the theoretical frameworks introduced earlier in the thesis when conducting an ethical analysis of autonomy-constraining technology. It also traces the concept of autonomy in the European Data Lawsand investigates the impact of cultural embeddings of individuals on efforts to safeguard autonomy, showing intercultural flashpoints of autonomy differences. In view of this, the thesis approaches the exercise and constraint of autonomy in presence of information technology systems holistically. It contributes to establish a common understanding of (intuitive) terminology and concepts, connects this to current phenomena arising out of ever-increasing interconnectivity and computational power and helps operationalize the protection of autonomy through application of the proposed frameworks.

This thesis is about the smart home, a connected ambience that will help consumers to live a more environmentally sustainable life and will help vulnerable categories of consumers to live a more autonomous life, thanks to the pervasive use of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology. In particular, civil liability for the malfunctioning of the smart home is the filter through which the research is carried out. I analyse whether the actual legal liability rules are ready or not to adapt to this new connected environment, such as the IoT-powered smart home. Through careful mapping of the technical and legal state of the art, the thesis argues that the EU rules on product liability contained in the Product Liability Directive (PLD) will apply consistently to these objects. This holds true even if at the time of the drafting of the thesis, the proposal on the update of the PLD had not been published yet. Through the analysis of past PLD cases, new American products liability case-law on domestic IoT objects and the latest legal scholarship’s contributions and policy inputs it was possible to anticipate some of the contents of the newly published EU PLD Update proposal.