CMCS announces joint project on European Privacy and Human Rights (EPHR)

Privacy International, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the Center for Media and Communications Studies (CMCS) are pleased to announce a new project on European Privacy and Human Rights (EPHR). The European Commissions Special Programme "Fundamental Rights and Citizenship" is funding this project, which will start February 1, 2010.

The EPHR project comprises three action areas:

1. Map European privacy laws and recent developments as well as summarise the trends in the light of the right to privacy;

2. Disseminate information and publish it on multiple online and offline platforms; and

3. Develop innovative awareness-raising campaigns to be launched at the European Data Protection Day on 28th January 2011.

The EPHR project builds upon the EPIC publication Privacy & Human Rights: An International Survey of Privacy Laws and Developments, which is the most authoritative reference on privacy regulations and developments worldwide. The following activities are the continuation of EPICs successful work.

CMCS will set up a European hub to coordinate input and updates, create a reliable network of country contributors, and maintain or improve the quality of analysis of each EU country report from all 27 EU Member States, the EU itself, the ECTA countries, and EU accession candidate countries. Privacy International will rely on the country information as background for its privacy ranking for all EU countries.  Finally, the EPHR survey will be illustrated by overview charts and maps covering all countries included in the survey.

As a result of the EPHR project, accurate and high quality information about the state of European privacy legal framework and recent developments will be at the fingertips of all Europeans in English and in the language of each EU member state for its respective country report. A summary will wrap up the country reports and present policy analysis and recommendations. It is expected that the dissemination and awareness-raising strategies will significantly enhance access to the survey. On the part of the CMCS, the project team will be coordinated by Professor Kristina Irion, Department of Public Policy.